


I'll Kill You Tomorrow

by Fairbairn_Sykes



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alec Guinness Obi-Wan, Darth Maul - Freeform, Emotionally constipated old men, Follows Canon for exactly 1 chapter, Frenemies, Frienemy slow burn, Hallucinations, Homicidal Fantasies, Lotho Minor Trauma, Obi-Wan Kenobi - Freeform, Old Master Maul, Spoilers for Twin Suns, Star Wars rebels - Freeform, Twin Suns AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2020-10-13 18:27:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20587034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairbairn_Sykes/pseuds/Fairbairn_Sykes
Summary: Twin Suns Fix-It AU.Maul finds Obi-Wan on Tatooine and their duel is swift and brutal. Obi-Wan makes the uncalculated decision that this once, he's going to save someone. After using the Force to heal his oldest enemy Obi-Wan is now stuck between a murderous Zabrak and a Galaxy that isn't quite yet ready for its savior.They've been trying to kill each other for so long, have they ever gotten the chance to actually talk?





	1. Bisected

**Author's Note:**

> Please forgive any spelling errors, I'm dyslexic and won't always catch everything.

_ Bisected. _

It was a clean word, a scientific word. A word that belonged to corpses, corpses-to-be, and him. 

_ Bisected. _

Maul hated it. Hated how it applied to his body and his life. All of it had been cut in two with one swing of a blade. He remembered the shock of it passing through him, so hot across his abdomen as it split his spine and severed his legs. He’d gone cold immediately after from the shock, his body instantly shutting down the pain as he had spent decades training it to. As his legs fell beside him, he'd caught a glimpse of them for a moment just before they tumbled into the darkness. His last sight was that of Kenobi’s idiotic face staring down at him from the light.

_ Kenobi. _

Maul had nearly despaired when he’d heard about Sidious’ purge. Once it had been all he’d craved, to see the Jedi fall for their hubris. But then he’d lost everything, his destiny, his legs, his sanity, and when he'd been found, things were different. He'd been strong, fearsome in a way he'd never known. He'd realized waiting in the shadows was for cowards, so he'd sought to set the galaxy on fire. He'd come close. Mandalore, the Dark Saber, Satine Kryze. So close. Then Sidious had taken Savage from him and the rest seemed hollow. Maul had feared his Master had taken Kenobi too. 

But here he stood, older, worn down by his years in exile, but alive, so wonderfully alive. Maul could have kissed Ezra, might even when he hunted the boy down after he’d finished with his task tonight.

“Look what has become of you.” Maul sighed, “A rat in the desert.” 

He would have laughed if it wasn’t so pathetic.

“Look what I’ve risen above.”

Maul arched a brow. 

“I have come to kill you, but perhaps it’s worse to leave you here, festering in your squalor.” He considered it for a moment, but dismissed the idea quickly. He would not turn away again. Not this time. 

“If you define yourself by your power to take life, the desire to dominate, to possess,”

Kenobi was droning away, as he always did when there were more important things going on. 

“then you have nothing.”

That last bit caught in Maul’s craw. _ Nothing? _What did Kenobi know of nothing? Nothing was what he’d been reduced to when he’d been cut in half. Nothing was what Savage had become when Sidious saw fit to pay them a visit. Nothing, like his home planet, like his clan, and his mother. He felt the rage swell inside, and he welcomed it like an old friend. 

His saber slipped so easily from its hiding place, an extension of himself as much as his prosthetic legs. 

“And what do you have?!” He snarled, the rage flowing fast through him now, narrowing his vision until there was only Kenobi. The fire died with a single blow, leaving them alone in the empty star lit night of the Tatooine wastes.

Unbidden, a thought came to him, piercing the veil of hate and bringing him back to himself. It was no coincidence that Kenobi would go into hiding on this desolate rock. It was where he’d first encountered the man’s Master and the boy who became Anakin Skywalker. There were a thousand planets he could have chosen, but he hadn't. In Kenobi's mind there was a flicker of fear and Maul seized on it without hesitation.

“Why come to this place? Not simply to hide."

Maul paused, savoring the revelation.

"Oh, you have a purpose here.”

Kenobi gave no answer, but his face hardened and his weight shifted almost imperceptibly. He was preparing for a fight.

“Perhaps you are protecting something? 

The old Jedi was good, but his face and body betrayed him all the same even as he suppressed his emotions in the Force. It was all the confirmation Maul needed.

“No. Protecting _ someone _.”

Kenobi’s face was awash in blue light as he finally activated his lightsaber. Maul didn’t bother gloating as they assumed their fighting stances. Finally, after all these years it would end. No war, no politics, no distractions. They would fight on even footing and he would be avenged. They locked eyes, taking each other’s measure, each already knowing what they would find.

Masters, equal in every way as they always had been. Kenobi stood tall and steady, the brashness of his youth soothed away by desert sands. Maul felt the old rage rising again and though he welcomed it gladly, it too had changed. Gone was the pride and arrogance of his youth, beaten out of him by years of struggle and pain, replaced by a cold burning fury for this to simply be over. 

Without warning Maul sprang forward, determined to take Kenobi by surprise, counting on his years of sedimentation to have slowed him. Their blades clashed once, twice, then it was over.

_ Bisected. _

The two sides of his lightsaber fell away as pain flared in his chest. This wasn’t how this was supposed to end. He wanted to be enraged, to scream at the void of stars above him that he deserved better than this, but he knew no one was listening. The rage faded and his vision began to grow hazy.

Kenobi caught him before he hit the ground and for once Maul found that the man’s presence wasn’t a burden. The human looked as exhausted as he felt. There was no anger or triumph in the old Jedi’s expression, he simply looked ready to give in. Though hurt to speak, pain had never stopped him before.

“Tell me. Is it the Chosen One?”

“He is.”

The pain began to recede as icy tendrils threaded their way across Maul's chest and arms. He couldn’t feel his durasteel legs anymore, but the usual panic failed to rise. 

“He will avenge us.” Maul breathed.

Peace, the first he’d ever felt, settled over him at the knowledge. So strange that it should come at Kenobi’s hands.

Maul’s head lolled and his vision darkened. He stared sightlessly into the eyes of a billion stars as they looked on, quiet and empty.


	2. The Cave

“He will avenge us.”

Air hissed from Maul’s lungs, slow and painful as he drew his last breath. The rattle betrayed the peace of the moment as Obi-Wan’s oldest enemy’s head lolled and his chest stilled. Obi-wan swept a hand over Maul's eyes and stared down at the man’s tattooed face. So accustomed to wearing a snarl in life, it was finally relaxed. His entire life, all Maul had known was pain, his unending rage fueled by abuse and hardship. To perish now on this planet was a pitiful end for a man who had endured so much.

“No.” Obi-Wan whispered. He was surprised at how rough his voice was after he'd managed to maintain his composure for so long. Why, after he'd endured so much, did the death of _Darth Maul_ finally break him? 

"You never stopped fighting," Obi-wan chuckled.

"To your last breath you never gave up hope that we could win." He pressed a hand to Maul's chest. It was still warm. The man had been dead for only a moment, his brain was still alive, his spirit not yet one with the Force. 

_I can save him._

Obi-wan calmed his mind and reached into the Force. This once, he could _do_ something.

_ “He is a threat.” _Echoed the soft voice of his former Master, Qui-Gon Jinn. _“Saving him may doom the galaxy and everything we have fought to protect. Think of the children Obi-wan.” _

Obi-Wan ignored the voice and sank deeper into his meditation, letting the Force wash over him like a gentle wave. He didn’t know if it was spite that made him ignore his old Master's warnings, or simple grief, but Qui-gon had been dead for a long time and Obi-wan was tired of being alone.

“If he proves to be a threat, I will deal with him tomorrow as readily as I did today.” Obi-Wan said to the cool night air. The Force flowed through him as he spoke and he flowed with it, reaching his mind down to Maul, feeling the wound and the shroud of death that clung to him. The damage was substantial, but not irreparable.

“_He is your oldest enemy. He has chased you through the decades, killing many you loved, in the name of torturing and killing you.” _

Below Obi-Wan’s hand the burned flesh began to stitch itself back together, severed arteries joining together. To his mild disgust the wound made a low _slorp_sound and then twin hearts began to thud faintly against his palm. The wound wasn't completely healed the burns on the surface persisted, but reattaching a spirit and repairing a heart was all he had the strength for. He was getting old.

“He’s the closest I have to a friend.”

Obi-Wan settled Maul gently in the sand, almost afraid to walk away should the man spontaneously die. He dusted his hands on his robes and shivered. The extra wood for the fire Maul had put out was on his dew back, Asajj. As were his emergency medical supplies. He sighed at his lack of foresight and pulled his robe off to cover the sleeping Zabrak. He probably wouldn't expire before the old girl got back. 

_ “Very well. The choice and consequences are yours.” _

Qui-Gon’s presence faded from Obi-Wan’s senses and he felt some of the tension leave his shoulders. Qui-Gon had been dead for nearly thirty years but he still managed to make Obi-Wan feel like a padawan late for his lessons. He turned his attention to Maul once more, contemplating his next steps. He couldn’t expose Luke to the former Sith, or allow the man anywhere near the Lars farm, but taking him home presented its own dangers. It was likely that Maul would try to kill him again when he regained his strength. Cutting him in half on Theed had done little to stop him and Obi-Wan had just ensured the former Sith got a few more swings before the Force finally took him.

His knowledge of Tatooine's geography was limited, but slowly a plan began to form in Obi-Wan’s mind. He couldn’t bring Maul home, but he couldn’t set him loose either. Carefully, he lifted his old enemy’s limp form and settled him beside the darkened fire pit. He could do nothing until his dewback returned from depositing Ezra somewhere safe, so he settled in for a chilly wait under Tatooine’s trio of moons.

\---

A bantha was sitting on Maul’s chest. He tried to breath against the weight, but each attempt was met with searing pain. Instinctively he locked the agony away, but the next breath brought it roaring back. He coughed, trying to dislodge the pressure, and was forced to fight back _tears _at the blinding pain it caused.

His groans were answered by the second worst voice he could have imagined.

“Ah! You’re awake. Good. No, don’t try to move, you’ll reopen the wound.”

_ Kenobi, because death was too kind. _

Maul tried to lunge at the Jedi, but the bantha kept him down and his legs weren’t answer his urgent calls. All he achieved was a slight wiggle and some weak arm flopping.

“What have you done to me?” He forced out against the pain.

“I saved your life.”

“After you killed me.” Maul snapped. He had no doubt he had died. The wound Kenobi had dealt him was too severe to survive, even for him. And then there was cold and something else he couldn't quite recall. He didn’t want to believe it was possible, that after all these years, that Kenobi of all people would kill be the one to kill him. He honestly hadn't planned for that eventually. But then, he'd also never planned what he would do if he won.

"You healed me? Maul asked incredulously. What was the point in defeating one’s mortal enemy if you didn’t let them stay dead? Bringing him back was just gloating.

“You’re welcome.” Kenobi replied in the same frustratingly calm tone with which he’d admonished Maul before severing his hearts. 

“Why?” 

He tried to turn his head towards where he’d heard the Jedi’s voice coming from, but found himself too tired for anything more than a slight sideways loll. He settled for glaring in the human’s general direction through slitted eyes. Maul finally caught sight of the Jedi only a few paces away. Kenobi was crouched just out of clawing range, cool blue eyes regarding his fallen enemy. Beside him slouched a battered knapsack, an equally aged canteen, a light that looked like it had been pried from an old BEA Scout suit, and a pile of nutrition bricks wrapped in bright foil. Beskar Bites his Mandalorians had called them, thanks to the indestructible lining they gave your stomach. 

“It wasn’t your time.” The Jedi said sagely. Maul rolled his eyes at the sanctimonious windbag. 

“No one has a time to die Kenobi. You of all people should know that.” He’d been hoping to get a rise out of the man but was disappointed when he only received a shrug of acquiescence. Annoyed at Kenobi’s lack of fighting spirit, Maul turned his attention to his surroundings. Though he was too weak to turn his head for a proper look, it was obvious from the natural stone ceiling and the acoustics that he was in a cave of some kind. It was long and narrow, a natural fissure of orange and yellow sand stone. Natural light shone from a crack at the furthest edge of the cave. It was dim enough that Kenobis BEA light wasn't so much needed as appreciated. Maul knew how dark caves like these could get at night. 

_ Far above, far above, we don’t know where we’ll fall. _

Maul forced his gaze back to the Jedi, fighting to keep his breathing under control as memories skittered through his mind. His body jerked in a sudden shiver and his breath came in panicked gasps, each a fresh stab of agony. They ghosted before his eyes as white puffs of frigid air. His eyes rolled wildly before finding Kenobi's bright blue gaze and Maul felt the cold recede. The Jedi didn't blink, and he didn’t comment, but it was clear he’d sensed the pulse of dark power that Maul had summoned. As the pain receded, the temperature returned to its usual subterranean chill Maul shifted his eyes away. 

“You can’t keep me here. I will find a way out, and when I do I’m going to kill you.” He said flatly.

Kenobi rose and pushed the ration bricks and canteen into range with a foot before turning to walk away. He stopped at the tunnel entrance and turned to look over his shoulder,

“It’s good to have goals. Until then, there’s more rations in the bag. I’ll be back this evening to change your bandages.” Then he was gone. Maul glared at the spot where Kenobi had stood but lacked the strength for even a rude gesture. Still too weak to use his arms, Maul reached out to the Force and found the familiar darkness waiting to be bent to his will. He considered sending a projection to Kenobi, something suitably horrid, maybe even horrid enough to give the old man a heart attack. He eventually decided against it. For now he needed the Jedi alive if only to nurse him back to health. Then Maul could strangle him for his insolence. He directed the dark energy to bring the supplies closer so when he did have the strength to open them he wouldn’t have to work hard to reach them. 

With little else to do, Maul allowed himself to slip into meditation. He focused on the agony of his wound until all that existed was pain, the staccato rhythm of his hearts and the dark void of the Force. He would survive. It was his curse.

—

Maul was going to lose his mind again. 

Three days in the cave. Three days too weak to move, forced to endure Kenobi’s ministrations and his idle blathering. Light Side this, morality that. If Maul could have raised his head more than a few inches from the thin mattress Kenobi had provided, he would have skewered the human with his horns as soon as he got in stabbing range. Alas, the old Jedi was wary and stayed just beyond Maul’s reach. He prattled on and on, not seeming to care if his captive audience was actually listening.

On the fourth day of incessant chatter he realized Kenobi wasn’t going to shut up and leave him to rot in peace because the old man was _ lonely. _It was pathetic. Once the old Jedi had thousands of false siblings to spend his time with. Now he only had Maul. To find solace in the presence of one’s greatest enemy was idiocy. It only served to reaffirm Maul's growing suspicions. No intelligent being would behave in such a stupid and reckless fashion. All this time alone had _done_ something to the Jedi. He puttered around the cave, checking Maul's chest, making sure he had enough food, sweeping back the endless tide of sand. General Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Negotiator, _puttered. _Killing him would be a mercy at this point.

When Kenobi didn’t return to the cave on the fifth day, Maul was horrified to discover he was lonely too. He was accustomed to being alone, solitude had been a constant companion since his first memories. He’d spent over ten years living in squalor with no one but a snake to keep him company and had survived more or less intact. Much of his madness could have been attributed to the loss of his legs and his defeat on Naboo, but an almost equal amount could be blamed on the lack of contact with anything other intelligent creatures that wasn't food or foe. With Savage he’d learned the value and satisfaction of having someone else to confide in. Their time together driving terror into the hearts of the most fearsome criminals the galaxy had been short. Too short. But Maul had enjoyed the company. He’d hoped to find a similar connection with Young Ezra, but his idiot master still held too much sway over him for such a bond to be made. 

As the years had passed and his power with it, Maul had once again found himself alone in the galaxy, but this time the emptiness was bitter and cold. Kenobi could never fill the void in his chest. Not with all the rations and anicdotes in the Galaxy, on after his second day alone, Maul was horrified to discover himself excited when he heard the familiar scuff of Kenobi’s boots in the tunnel. Maul shuffled himself into a sitting position and fixed a hard glare on his face to greet the old Jedi as he shuffled into view. Maul glared harder at the act. He's seen the nydak that hid under all that white hair, waiting for the attack. 

“Hello there!” Kenobi said in a painfully jovial voice, a grin spreading across his face as he saw Maul. It served only to darken his mood.

“Where were you?” He snapped, trying to cover his relief with irritation. He had the sense that Kenobi saw through the act, but he had the decency not to comment on it.

“Those rations don’t grow on trees, you know.” He said, coming fully into the cave and depositing a new sack of foodstuffs. 

“Of course not.” Maul growled, “Trees would have to grow here first.”

Kenobi nodded his agreement.

“So what now?” Maul asked. Though he wasn’t strong enough to stand, and his chest still ached with each breath, his recovery was proceeded unnaturally fast. He suspected Kenobi was drawing on the Force to speed his recovery, but he couldn’t believe the old man would be so foolish to keep exposing himself in the Force. Then again, this was Obi-Wan Kenobi, his foolishness was only surpassed by his former padawan’s. 

“Now you eat. It would be rather impolite to bring you back from death’s door only to allow you to starve.” He removed another group of Beskar bites from the pack and approached Maul slowly. The Zabrak watched him with suspicious eyes, waiting for any sign of hostility. Likewise, Kenobi’s eyes and senses were fixed on Maul, trying to determine the level of threat he presented. Whatever his senses told him, they were wrong.

When the human’s foot was close enough, Maul pounced. In his weakened state he felt agonizingly slow, but the sudden movement seemed to take Kenobi by surprise and he couldn’t jump back quick enough. Maul’s bony hand gripped the Jedi’s ankle with bruising strength then he gave a single desperate yank. Kenobi let out an undignified shout as he lost his balance and toppled backwards. Rations sprayed in a fountain of torn silver wrappers and "nerf" flavored nutrition cubes. They bounced across the sandy cave floor as Kenobi’s back slammed into the ground, knocking the wind out of him and leaving him dazed.

Chest burning and strength failing, Maul pulled on the man’s leg, dragging the human towards him, trying to bring his wrinkly neck into strangling range. Kenobi’s free leg lashed out instinctively and caught Maul in the face. He snarled as pain blossomed in his nose and blood spilled across his upper lip, dripping into the sand in brownish-red splatters. He pulled again, but his strength failed, consumed by the flash of adrenaline from his first attack. Kenobi kicked his leg free and rolled away, coming to his feet in a maladroit stagger. Despite the sand coating his robes, face, and hair, the old Jedi quickly composed himself, the wheeze of each breath the only indicator of what had just happened.

Maul spat blood onto the ground and weakly dragged himself back onto the mattress. Part of him hoped Kenobi would try and clean the blood off and provide him with another chance at strangulation. The logical side of his brain reasserted itself and remembered that that killing Kenobi would be consigning himself to a slow death by starvation. For today he would let the Jedi live, he’d earned that much by surviving this newest attempt on his life.

“Now that that’s out of your system, would you care for some tea?” Kenobi asked.

“Is it poisoned?”

“Only with sugar.”

“If I must.”

The tea was a surprising relief in the cool of the cave, flavorful and soothing, though Maul would never admit that out loud. They drank in silence, listening to the distant howl of wind outside and the forlorn moan that accompanied it as it blew past the entrance. Maul could sense the tangle of emotions that twisted inside Kenobi, fear, grief, hope, all masked by his blank expression and soft eyes. Maul could also sense the headache the man was developing and couldn’t help but smile into his cup, knowing he was the cause. 

Even if today’s murder attempt had failed, it was comforting to know there was always tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


	3. Monster

Strangulation was too easy. He wouldn’t even need to use his hands to perform the act, but strangling Obi-Wan Kenobi with the Force alone would be so unsatisfying. Best to use his hands if he did decide to take the easy route. Get a good grip on the human’s throat and enjoy his front row seat as the old man’s face reddened, then turned a dull purple, then finally that delightful bluish black. He wondered if the Jedi’s tongue would poke out before he died. It was likely, Maul had seen it happen the last time he strangled someone to death.

It wouldn’t be dignified, but it would work. 

Maul mused on how else he could facilitate his host’s untimely demise. His teeth would work as well, lock his jaws around that pale flesh and bite until he tasted blood, then bite harder. He’d been called bloodthirsty in the past, why not live up to that reputation? 

_ “Human’s carry so many diseases.” A low voice whispered in his mind_. Savage was right, humans were famous for being riddled with all kinds of pathogens. Best not to risk exposure in case Kenobi had something catching. 

With his legs still unresponsive despite his fast recovery, an actual fight was out of the question. He’d made an error in the desert, expecting Kenobi to be slow and to make the same mistake his master had, but the old Jedi had proven far more competent than Maul had expected. He didn’t intend to be defeated so easily a second time. 

He was fantasizing smashing Kenobi’s head in with a rock when the victim-to-be returned to the cave. He didn’t have the usual pack of rations, but rather carried a small metal object in one hand. For a moment Maul was confused, but as Kenobi approached he recognized the device. It was a holocron, its gold corners engraved with flowing scroll work, blue core pulsing with a gentle light. The last one he’d encountered had exploded, but before doing so it had led him here. He was hesitant to try his luck a second time.

“What is that for?” Maul asked incredulously. 

“To educate you.” Kenobi said. Maul groaned and slumped against the mattress. In his imagination he changed the image of the rock to a holocron and grinned. Poetic justice.

“You were taught only the power to destroy. To allow your hate and rage to consume you until only darkness remained. But you have come back from death, you have been granted a second chance. The knowledge in this device can help you down a different path.”

Maul blew air through his teeth in a harsh laugh.

“After everything you’ve done to me and I’ve done to you, you think you can what? _ Save _ me?” Maul scoffed indignantly.

“There is no saving me Kenobi, no turning me to the light.”

“Only because you do not allow it.” Kenobi replied. Maul laughed, long and hard, until his chest ached and his eyes watered. It was a joke, there was no other explanation.

“I do not allow it because I do need it. Save your pity for someone who needs it. I have no time for it.”

“Right now, time is all you have.” Kenobi said. He settled into a meditative position just outside of Maul’s reach and placed the holocron on the stone floor. Maul considered making a grab for it, but when he reached out with the Force, he felt another presence already coiled around it. He pulled back instinctively, the darkness within recoiling from the purity of Kenobi’s Force signature. Between them, the holocron floated gently into the air, clicked, then separated, the corners spinning and coming away. The blue light at the center pulsed brighter until Maul had to avert his gaze. The light washed over him like a cool breeze and he hissed at its touch. A voice filled the small cave, guttural and not at all what he’d expected.

_ “Meditation For Padawans, Lesson One we will now begin. An important skill this is. Through mediation, connected we become to the Living Force.” _

“You can’t be serious.” Maul groaned. The light from the holocron had dimmed and taken the shape of a small green figure standing atop the floating device. Maul had never met the former leader of the Jedi Council, but Lord Sidious had always regarded Master Yoda with the utmost respect and contempt.

“_Slow breathing, the key is.” _The holographic Yoda continued.

“_In.” _The little figured rasped.

“_Out.” _

_ “In.” _

_ “Out.” _

With each word Maul felt his eye twitch and his rage build. He watched the slow rise and fall of Kenobi’s chest, in time with the tiny form of the already diminutive Jedi Master. With dawning horror, Maul realized that Kenobi was serious. 

Two hours later, Maul was ready to bludgeon himself to death with the holocron. Kenobi hadn’t moved an inch, looking as comfortable on the stone floor as he would have on the softest cushion. 

_ “Connected to the Force, all living things are. Grieve for those who have died, do not. Become one with the Living Force, they have.” _

Maul had mostly tuned the little green Jedi out, but his words penetrated his wall of apathy. Sidious had never spoken of anything like this, when he bothered to teach philosophy at all. To him the Force has been a weapon, a tool to be used in achieving his goals, just like Maul had been. 

“What is he talking about?” The question escaped his lips before he could stop it. Kenobi’s eyes opened, the blue of his irises made even brighter in the holocron’s light. Yoda’s voice halted and the tiny figure disappeared, though the holocron maintained its unlocked shape.

“When we die, we become one with the Force, our essence going out into the universe to sustain all life.” Kenobi replied. His tone took on none of the condescension or mockery Maul had expected, if anything, he sounded almost excited by the question.

Maul made a disbelieving face.

“Everyone?”

“Of course. The Force holds no judgement for anyone, there is no good or bad form that it assumes. No wondrous pleasures for the virtuous, or painful torments for the wicked. We simply exist apart from the universe, but also as the fabric that makes it.” 

“And I assume you have information this on good authority.” Maul mocked.

“I do.” Kenobi replied without a trace of sarcasm. Maul’s brow wrinkled in skepticism at the honest admission. He wasn’t sure how to feel about this version of his old enemy. The Kenobi in his memory was a brash warrior, full of bravado and possessed of a razor sharp wit. He bore little resemblance to this white haired old man, so tired and soft and ready to forgive.

“_He tried to save you once brother. On Mandalore. Do you remember?” _

Maul squeezed his eyes shut and tried to will Savage’s voice away. Was he part of the Living Force as Kenobi said? Was this phantom which had haunted him since Savage had died on Mandalore really him or another projection of his already damaged mind? He didn’t want to wonder. It was so much easier to simply know he was insane than to ask questions of the stars. 

“Your thoughts dwell on your brother.” Kenobi said quietly. Maul’s eyes snapped open and he lurched upright with a snarl.

“Don’t you dare speak of him or enter my mind and spy on my thoughts. Your tricks won’t work on me Kenobi, so don’t try them.” He spat the words viciously. 

“Of course, my apologies.” Kenobi replied, raising his hands in a conciliatory gesture. 

“You think you know me because you’ve fought me? Because you visited the planet I was ripped from before I could form memories of it? You know nothing about me.” Maul continued, the rage blazing like a bonfire now. With no physical outlet to expel it, he put as much venom into the words as he could.

“You couldn’t save your master from my blade and you couldn’t save your own padawan from yours.” At Kenobi’s suddenly shocked expression Maul pressed harder.

“What was it like when he died?” He asked, spiteful glee seeping in alongside the hate as he watched pain bloom in Kenobi’s eyes.

“Did you leave the bond intact long enough to feel him die, or did you sever it just before striking the final blow to spare yourself the pain? Did he scream? Beg for mercy? Did you have it in you to grant it?”

Kenobi’s lips had formed into a thin line and his hands were shaking.

“I may be a monster Kenobi, but at least I didn’t murder my brother.”

Kenobi stood abruptly, the holocron zipping through the air and into his open palm. He breathing was even, but his movements were jerky as he prepared to leave. Maul let him go without another word. He’d done enough damage to Kenobi today, anything more would have little effect. It may not have been another attempt on his life, but the words had cut the Jedi deeper than anything else Maul had done so far. 

At the mouth of the tunnel leading out, Kenobi stopped as he did most days and said,

“I’ll be back tomorrow with Meditation For Padawans Lesson Two. You should practice what you learned today.”

Before Maul could tell him where he could shove his holocron, Kenobi was gone, enveloping robes swishing behind him. The former Sith sighed and laid back against the mattress. His chest hurt but not nearly so much as his head. Each day he spent in Kenobi’s care was more confusing than the one before and he was afraid that too much time spent with the man without one of them dying, and staying that way, could have dire consequences on his psyche.

—

_ “I warned you.” _

Obi-Wan resisted the urge to groan. His head, back, and heart ached from spending so much time with Maul and the last thing he needed was a lecture from Qui-Gon. 

“Yes, you’re wise and powerful Master, but would you mind being wise and powerful at someone else right now?” He asked as politely as he felt like asking.

“_Don’t let Maul shake you. The Dark Side is strong within him, I can see little separation between him and it. Your goal of turning him to the light is a noble one, but one that I fear will lead to nothing but suffering for the both of you.” _

Obi-Wan sighed. Qui-Gon was in a talkative mood which meant he wasn’t going anywhere. Obi-Wan didn’t bother replying as he settled himself into the swinglike harness he’d installed at the cave entrance. Entrance was something of a misnomer, the cave was only accessible by a crack in the ground which opened to a sheer drop, at the bottom of which Obi-Wan presently stood. To enter or exit the little system of tunnels and caves, one had to be lowered down via a harness and pulley system he’d installed himself. He knew Anakin would have found some way to automate and speed up the process, but Obi-Wan lacked his former apprentice’s technical skill. He set about the laborious task of hauling on one rope to make the ascent, fighting gravity and his own weight. It was slow going and his arms were burning from exertion before he’d even made it halfway. He’d contemplated a system which would allow him to utilize the Force but decided such an overt use of his abilities was too dangerous. He was already risking more than he should have with healing Maul, and he was beginning to wonder if it was worth it.

_ “You must decide now if you are going to continue on with Maul or finish what you started twenty years ago on Naboo.” _Qui-Gon said. His voice held concern, not judgement, for his former padawan.

“I have to believe he can turn to the light.” Obi-Wan grunted, arms burning with the strain of the climb. He really was getting too old for this.

“_Why?” _Qui-Gon prompted patiently.

For a moment Obi-Wan didn’t answer, instead concentrating on his breathing. Above him he could see the glint of sunshine and he was beginning to feel the heat it promised. Leaving Maul was harder than arriving, an irony that wasn’t lost on him.

“Because he’s wrong.” Obi-Wan finally said as he reached the top of the shaft. He hauled himself out of the crack in the ground and lay for a moment in the sand, letting the dry desert heat wash over him. He could sense Qui-Gon waiting for him to continue.

“I didn’t break the bond with Anakin before I killed him.” He hesitated.

“I still haven't.”

Pain blossomed in his head as his thoughts turned to the creature that had consumed his apprentice and closest friend. Darkness, cold and pure, accompanied by hatred so deep and black it blotted out all else, swept over Obi-Wan and in the heat of Anakin’s home planet, he shivered. 

“_Oh my young padawan.” _Qui-Gon sighed sadly. 

“I couldn’t save Anakin when he fell, but Maul never fell to the darkside, he was raised by it. If I can turn someone like him to the light, maybe…” Obi-Wan trailed off, afraid to give voice to his greatest hope and his deepest fear.

Qui-Gon was silent and Obi-Wan was grateful for it. He’d spent the last eighteen years in isolated torment, hoping to find a way to bring Anakin back from the monster Obi-Wan had helped create. Maul’s arrival had been both a blessing and a curse. He was a wonderful distraction from the endless days spent in exile, but his very nature was one of vicious cruelty. The odds of actually turning him away from the dark were as dismal as they could possibly be, but Obi-Wan couldn’t bring himself to give up hope. It was all he had left.

He also couldn’t help but feel somewhat responsible for the man Maul had become. Though he hadn’t been the one to raise and train Maul, his actions in the bowels of Theed and during the Clone Wars had only added fuel to the fire of Maul’s rage. Obi-Wan knew logically that he wasn’t the one to blame, that Maul’s actions had been his own, but that didn’t stop the ghosts in his memory from staring at him with accusing eyes. Had he killed Maul or found a way to neutralize him all those years ago, so many innocents would still be alive. All he could do now was try to mend this single wrong in a sea of hundreds.

Obi-Wan sat up, already feeling his cheeks reddening from the searing sunlight. In the distance his dewback, Asajj, stood sheltered from sight and the heat by an outcropping of rock jutting up at a steep angle. The dumpy creature stared at him placidly, a calming presence in the Force. Distantly, Obi-Wan could sense the roiling mess of emotions that was Maul, but the Zabrak was skilled at keeping his signature hard to detect. His verbal assault appeared to have been as damaging to himself as to its intended target. A moment later, Obi-Wan couldn’t sense him at all.

“Note to self.” Obi-Wan said out loud. “Don’t bring up his brother.” Asajj blinked slowly and gave a low mooing call to greet his approaching figure. He mounted the creature and began the slow trek home, trying to decide if he’d made yet another monumental mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


	4. Mechanisms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally answer the question no one but me ever asked.

Meditation for Padawans, Lesson Two was as mind numbingly boring as the first. Lessons three through five were no better. Maul wondered if he pried the corners free from the holocron and shoved them down Kenobi’s throat, would the man would choke to death or drown in his own blood first? He settled on choke to death. 

“_Done well you have.” _Burbled Yoda’s raspy voice.

“_On the path you are to Jedi Master. Continue to practice, and connect with the Living Force, you will.” _

Maul fought the urge to sigh with relief. According to Kenobi, they hadn’t finished lesson one and in a true demonstration of idiodic design, there was no way to scan through the lesson. He’d been forced to re-experience the entire first lesson simply to hear the last ten minutes. The little green monster didn’t even bring up the afterlife again after his first mention. The other four lessons were equally as disappointing. Maul forced himself to keep his questions to himself, refusing to give Kenobi the satisfaction of knowing he was interested. 

“If you don’t mind me asking-” Kenobi began after the fifth lesson concluded,

“I do."

“If your master rarely touched on the spiritual side of the Force, what did he teach you?”

Maul ground his teeth and considered not answering. He was under no obligation to reply, but Kenobi was just staring at him with those simpering blue eyes and Maul could sense he had no intention of leaving without an answer. They stared unblinking until Maul gave a short frustrated sigh and leaned back on the mattress.

“Pain mostly.” 

He fought to push away his memories of Sidious’ “lessons”. Steady breathing wasn’t the only way to fall into a deep meditation. Sidious had trained him well how to sink into his own mind against all odds, to find that frozen core of hatred, and use it as fuel to survive. When one could ignore the searing agony of fresh burns and push aside the terror of drowning as freezing water filled their lungs and manage still draw on the Force, then one had mastered mediation. He had many such pleasant childhood memories, drilling the lessons in with extreme efficiency.

“And the Force?”

“The Force is a tool just like a lightsaber. It was taught the same way.”

Kenobi’s expression didn’t change, but Maul could sense his discomfort radiating into the force like a wave. The idea of torturing a child into a weapon made the Jedi uncomfortable. Good. If Kenobi had felt any pleasure at what Maul had endured, he wasn’t sure he would have known what to do with himself. The very idea of Kenobi as sadistic was beginning to become as foreign to Maul as the concept of mercy. Once he may have believed the human capable of such cruelty, but now, after all he’d come to learn of Kenobi, he was beginning to believe some of his notions about the man's personality may have been misguided. He’d been in this cave for at least a thousand years by now, and he was beginning to grasp what had become of Kenobi in the years since their last meeting on Mandalore. The wounds dealt to him by his former student had cut the bite out of him and left him docile. 

“Why does it matter?” Maul asked abruptly. 

“I know very little about the Sith or how they are trained. Most seem to be fallen Jedi, but you were taught their ways from the start.” Kenobi answered.

“You hunt us and you kill us, but you know nothing about us? That doesn’t seem very Jedi to me.” Maul said. 

Kenobi frowned,

“No, it doesn’t.” He agreed after a moment of thought. Maul fought not to rolled his eyes, but it was a losing battle.

“We were both soldiers Kenobi, trained since birth to be killers for our Masters. Your upbringing may have been in a lofty temple where they spared the rod, but you still became a warrior. You were never better than me because your robes were white.”

“Were soldiers?” Kenobi asked, one white eyebrow arching.

“Were, are, will be. It’s all the same.” Maul said with a dismissive wave. Kenobi shook his head,

“No, it’s not. We’re not soldiers anymore Maul. Our masters are no more, dead or so apathetic to our plight we no longer matter. We don’t have to keep following their orders.”

To his shock, Maul found that he wanted to believe the old man. Freedom from Sidious, the Empire, the Sith? He was old now and that brash boy whose pain had burned so bright was decades dead. He owed nothing to his Master who had tortured him to perfection and abandoned him after failure. The Mandalorians were gone, the Shadow Collective no longer under his control. What was left to fight for?

I must have revenge.

_Why?_

Memories surged of that night in the desert just before Kenobi killed him again.

“_Is it the Chosen One?” _

_ “He is.” _

Obi-Wan Kenobi was a liar. That at least hadn’t changed. His master Qui-Gon Jinn may be dead, but the old Jedi was still marching to someone else’s tune. Maul didn’t have the energy to pursue that argument at the moment, so he stored it away for later and changed the subject.

“When will you let me repair my legs?” Maul asked. Kenobi sighed audibly and looked uncomfortable. Maul gave a sly grin,

“I built them myself Kenobi, I know the difference between damage and forced deactivation. You removed the sensor arrays while I was unconscious, just ripped them out completely didn't you? Amateur. You should have left those and destroyed the servos in my hips and knees, it would have been more effective at permanently preventing me from moving.”

"Wouldn't that just be smashing your legs with a rock?” Kenobi asked with what seemed like genuine curiosity. Maul shrugged,

“You’re not a mechanic. I doubt you could have done any worse than you already did."

Kenobi laughed. The old Jedi actually laughed, the sound filling the small cave as it bounced off the walls and echoed down the tunnel. Maul was shocked at the reaction. It had been an _ insult _, why was he laughing? Kenobi caught a look at Maul’s face and simply started laughing harder, breath coming in ragged wheezes. 

“It wasn’t meant to be funny.” Maul grumbled to himself. Once Kenobi had composed himself, he wiped a tear from his eye and settled back into his meditative pose.

“Sorry about that. Anakin once told me that on a failing ship, if it came down to me with a tool kit and the ship schematics, or a Kowakian monkey-lizard with nothing but some engine grease and a will to live, he’d bet on the monkey-lizard.” His eyes sparkled at the memory and a faint smile touched his lips. For a moment Maul could see the Jedi he’d once been, but then the moment passed and sadness crept back into Kenobi’s expression.

“Savage was no mechanic either.” He said lamely. Silence stretched awkwardly between them, painful memories and lost friends filling the void. After a moment of silence Kenobi sighed and stood to leave. 

“We’ll see about reinstalling what I tore out when you stop coming up with elaborate plans to murder me.” He said.

“I make no promises.” Maul replied sourly. He didn’t want to get used to living without his legs again, but it looked like he was going to be forced to for some time. Kenobi looked like he was about to leave, but he hesitated, a question suddenly blooming in the Force and his blue eyes.

“What?” Maul snapped.

“How do you...no, nevermind.” He began to walk away, but stopped short when an invisible hand gripped his neck. The pressure wasn’t suffocating, but it prevented him from going any further. He managed to turn his head enough to see Maul, arm outstretched, glaring at him.

“Spit it out Kenobi.” He growled. The old Jedi blushed and looked embarrassed.

“It’s nothing, a passing curiosity.” He said. Maul’s eyes narrowed and tightened his invisible grip. Kenobi winced at the sudden tension.

“Ask.” He commanded. He touched lightly on Kenobi’s mind, knowing the question but determined to make the man speak it aloud. If a little embarrassment was all he would manage to make Kenobi endure, by the Old Magics he was going to do it.

“How do you process waste?” Kenobi asked sheepishly, “I’ve seen you eat, but you haven’t produced any waste that I can see. I was fully prepared to deal with it, but evidently it’s not an issue.”

The grip on his neck vanished and now it was Maul’s turn to look horrified. _ Prepared to deal with it? _What was that supposed to mean. In his mind, Savage laughed.

“I have a digestive system built into the abdomen. It converts edible matter into the fuel that powers my legs. You didn’t have to _ deal with it _because there’s nothing to deal with. It’s still working because you only ripped out the arrays that let feel my legs. Digestion is controlled by a set of arrays you didn’t remove.”

Kenobi made a thoughtful face, then nodded,

“You are a skilled mechanic. I’m not sure even Anakin could have built something so complex.”

“Oh I doubt that. Besides, I’ve had time to perfect it.” Maul replied bitterly. He pushed away memories of a burning planet of filth, infections and parasites leaving him sick and half mad with fever. Mother Talzin had healed what was left, but after ten years living in squalor, he'd lost even more of himself than just what Kenobi had so cleanly severed. 

“It’s a good thing you didn’t rip all the wiring out, or I would have died of sepsis.” He added. That would have been an exceptionally pathetic ending, even for him.

“Well then, I suppose I’m glad I’m a bad mechanic.” Kenobi replied. He left the cave without another word.

Maul frowned after him. Though he agreed that dying in such a humiliating fashion wouldn’t be his first choice, that Kenobi was also relieved was confusing. Maul could rationalize saving an enemy, even nursing them back to strength, all in the pursuit of a satisfying fight that ended with their death. But he could only rationalize Kenobi's behavior so far. Could the senile old man actually be serious about trying to turn him to the light? If so, the Tatooine sun had done more than turn Kenobi’s once delicate skin leathery. It had completely cooked his brain. 

—

What felt like months since their awkward discussion about dead apprentices and Maul’s waste management practices, and the former Sith had come to a conclusion.

Kenobi was going to leave him to die after all. He hadn’t seen the Jedi since his abrupt departure and the rations and water he brought almost daily were getting dangerously low. His bandages no longer needed daily attention, but the skin underneath itched and the bacta gel had long since dried into an unpleasant crust. 

Maul could discern nothing about the world outside his cave. Even reaching into the Force to search for signs of life forms on the surface gave him no indication of anything for miles. The planet may as well have been dead to the core. It was almost worse than Lotho Minor. At least that hell hole had scavengers he could sense, anchors to remind him he wasn’t alone. Here he was isolated, left to ruminate on his past and contemplate his purpose in life. That boded ill for Kenobi if he ever decided to came back. 

With nothing else to do and no Jedi to make him feel self conscious, Maul fell into a deep meditation, combining the techniques Sidious had taught him, stoking the rage in his chest until it burned and gave him something to focus on, and the steady breathing and self awareness Yoda preached. He breathed slowly and with each inhale the fire built, and with each exhale he felt himself sink further into its warmth. Memories played across the backs of his eyelids but he didn’t try to grasp any of them, instead he let them float past like strips of cloth blown in the wind.

_ Savage’s face, hard and impassive as a mountain, staring down a small army of gangsters on Nal Hutta. _

_ Mother Talzin giving her life so he could escape. Saxon and Rook dragging him away from her crumbling corpse. _

_ Kenobi, kneeling at his feet, holding the corpse of the woman he’d chosen not to love. _

_ Sidious laughing while he murdered Savage in front of Maul and then the rage spilling over him, hotter than he’d ever felt before. _

_ Kenobi swinging the blade that cut Maul in two and ended his life as he knew it. _

_ Kenobi wielding two lightsabers as those traitorous pirates fled and Savage lost his arm. _

_Kenobi, standing implacable in the desert, three moons and millions of stars shining bright overhead. _

_ Kenobi’s arms, strong around him as he died. _

_ Kenobi, laughing like a fool at an insult when he should have been enraged. _

_ Kenobi, crossing blades with a towering figure in black armor. _

Maul’s eyes snapped open. His breathing was ragged and his hearts hammered painfully in his chest. He wasn’t sure what he’d been seeing, but it wasn’t a memory. Whatever it was, Force vision or simple hallucination, it left him reeling. Perhaps it ended with Kenobi’s death, and though the thought was fun to entertain, it was inevitably unsatisfying. He would be the one who killed Kenobi, no one else was going to get him first. He considered telling the Jedi about the vision the next time he saw him, but he decided against it. He had no way of knowing if it was real, and if it was, meddling in the future was a risky business. Besides, Kenobi had been missing for eons. He deserved a crimson bladed surprise.

Maul slept fitfully after his meditation, stomach cramping from lack of water and too little food. He could still see his ribs even after all this time in Kenobi's care. Each one was outlined sharply under his tattooed skin. Once he’d cut an imposing figure, athletic and strong, violence distilled in a living body and honed razor sharp. On Lotho Minor he’d lived on scraps, losing any bulk he’d once had and becoming an emaciated husk of his former self. He’d never regained the muscle he’d lost and had acknowledged years ago that he never would. If Savage hadn’t found him, he would have wasted away on that filth covered planet years ago. 

He wondered briefly if that fate would have been kinder. To simply fade into obscurity, a monstrous madman adrift in a sea of refuse. Maul had determined long ago that he’d never been meant to simply fade into nothing. The universe needed some poor soul to take its frustration out on. That he was alive to complained about it only solidified his theory. It was a depressing thought, so he turned his mind elsewhere. Back to Kenobi and the myriad ways he could visit death upon him.

Starvation was a cruel way to kill, but it had a certain appeal. He could watch Kenobi waste away like everything else in Maul’s life, chained to a wall or locked in a cage. It was an impersonal means of execution, but it would last for a long time. Satisfying, but with none of the bone crunching satisfaction he craved. 

Back to physical violence then.

Maul lost himself in his fantasies, each one more brutal than the last. Blasters, poison, knives, his bare hands. So many ways to murder, but only one chance to do the deed. He knew his abilities in the Force would not be bringing Kenobi back as he had Maul, so when he did finally kill the Jedi, it would have to be perfect the first time. 

“_He still has your sensor arrays.” _ Savage reminded him. _ “Kill him before you get them and you’ll die in this cave.” _

Maul sighed, but he knew Savage was right. He needed Kenobi for now, but as soon as he was able to walk it would be a different story.

“Do you think he’s coming back?” Maul asked the empty air. He didn’t expect an answer. He was almost certain that ghost only existed in his mind.

“Did_ I come back?” _

Maul froze, terror seizing him. He knew that voice, it had raised him, shaped him, molded him into a weapon and then loosed him on the galaxy.

“_Has anyone ever come back for you?” _

His master whispered in his mind. Maul squeezed his eyes shut, his mental shields slamming into place. The voice went on.

“No. And why_ would they?” _ Sidious chided, “_You have always been a burden on others. A pitiful failure. Maul, the fool who thought he meant more. Kenobi is simply smarter than the others. He has abandoned you before you have the chance to fail him too.” _

It wasn’t real. Some part of him knew that. Sidious hadn’t found him and wasn’t invading his mind, but Force it _sounded _like him. Poison whispered from his own self conscious, choosing a voice that despite the decades, could still hurt him.

“_You allowed this Jedi to break you. Now you have no choice but to grovel for his mercy. You are truly pathetic.” _Sidious’ voice grated in Maul’s mind, manifesting his insecurities and spitting them in his face. Once that voice had ruled him, pushing him so far into the dark he lost all sense of himself. Only one name had kept him alive, one-

“Maul?”

The former Sith jerked violently out his unintentional meditation and looked up, head throbbing with pain. Kenobi stood above him, battered backpack slung over one shoulder, sloshing canteen in his free hand. For a moment, Maul couldn’t decide if he was real or not. For a moment they simply blinked at each other, but then Kenobi slid the pack down to the floor and passed Maul the canteen. He smothered the joy that surged in his chest at the sight of the human and drank deeply from the canteen, all suspicions dispelled by the cool water. Relief flooded him and he felt his shoulders slump. He forced himself to put the canteen down or risk finishing it too fast. Across from him, Kenobi began unpacking ration packages. Maul's relief was swept away in an avalanche of rage.

“Where have you been?” he snarled. He considered throwing the canteen at Kenobi’s head but decided it would be a waste of water. Instead, he took an enraged sip.

“Sandstorm.” Kenobi replied, voice placid as ever. It only made Maul angrier.

“What are you doing here?” He hissed, voice cold.

The Jedi looked confused.

“I wasn’t going to leave you to starve. The sandstorms here are very-” He replied.

“No!” Maul snapped. He gestured to the cave with the canteen, then himself.

“What are you _doing _here?”

Kenobi smiled gently and scratched his beard. The coarse hair scraped against his nails and for a moment Maul had the almost overwhelming urge to touch it, but then Kenobi ruined it by speaking.

“I don’t know.” He answered.

Maul _ harrumphed _ in response. Of course Obi-Wan Kenobi didn’t have a plan. As old, tired, and boring as the Jedi had become, he was still Obi-Wan Kenobi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


	5. Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a very short talky chapter. Thank you to everyone who has commented and stayed with this story.  
Special Shout-Out to [Be_Right_Back](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Be_Right_Back/pseuds/Be_Right_Back) for their lovely comment. You inspired me to keep working on this.

“Have we ever just talked?”

Kenobi’s voice was soft in the gloom of the cave. Maul hadn’t heard him approaching, but his signature in the Force was a twisted jumble of emotion and he cradled an archaic candle with one hand. Once General Obi-wan Kenobi had been famed for his control both of himself and the Force, but that man was long gone. Old Ben Kenobi stood before Maul, his shoulders stooped like a man carrying a great weight, too afraid to put it down and rest for fear he lacked the strength to lift it again. Maul narrowed his eyes at the old man, trying to sense a ploy.

“Talked? What in all of the known Galaxy would we talk about?”

Maul shifted up onto his elbows as Kenobi gingerly lowered himself to the floor, setting his candle between them. Maul could tell it was going to be one of _those _conversations. The ones where Kenobi got a misty, far away look in his eyes and his Force signature turned sour. Maul would have called it pathetic if he’d been willing to lie to himself and say he hadn’t felt the same in the years since Savage’s death.

“I don’t know. What’s your favorite food?”

Maul stared at the Jedi incredulously.

“I had a friend on Coruscant who owned a diner in CoCo Town. Shawda sandwiches for five credits- “

Maul snorted a short laugh and too his surprise, it didn't hurt his chest.

“-and a photon fizzle on the side. Kenobi, how have you lived this long while eating that kind of filth.”

“You know Dex’s?”

The surprise in Obi-wan’s voice was both amusing and slightly insulting. Had the man forgotten they’d practically grown up as neighbors? Though Maul had frequently spent weeks or months off world working for his master or honing his skills, Coruscant had always been “home”. The Jedi Temple was hardly the only staple of the ecumenopolis, it was simply the largest and most self-important.

“Everyone on Coruscant knew Dex’s. I met with contacts there on several occasions to arrange an assassination or to kill someone myself.”

Obi-wan frowned, then looked up sharply, 

“Senator Uni’ba-aquaella. They were- “

Maul grinned.

“-strangled in the third stall of the restroom.”

Obi-wan’s blue eyes looked close to popping out of his head. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before he finally found his voice.

“My Master and I investigated that crime. We couldn’t figure out all three of their respiratory systems had been compromised at the same time with no exterior bruising.”

“The Dark Side of the Force is mysterious and powerful.” Maul said with a self-satisfied grin. Obi-wan shot the Zabrak a flat look.

“That’s cheating.”

“Using the Force to assassinate a Republic Senator is cheating?”

Obi-wan sighed and traced a finger through the thin layer of sand that coated the cave floor.

“I know I shouldn’t feel disappointed to finally learn the truth, but I do.”

Maul scowled and flopped back down on the mattress.

“You brought it up.”

They sat in sullen silence for a time. Maul stared at the rough stone ceiling; the highest points shrouded in shadow that Kenobi’s dim light could not penetrate.

“Bane back eggs.” Maul finally whispered to the darkness above him.

“Your favorite food?” 

Maul shrugged, not looking at the Jedi.

“On Dathomir. There’s a spider the Nightbrothers call the Bane Back. A brutal beast, but some of the stronger brothers had managed to domesticate the horrors and breed them for food. They were Savage’s favorite.” Maul paused for a moment, a smile ghosting his lips,

“He cooked some for me, right there on an open fire in front of the Nightsister Temple. After Lotho Minor, when he sav- “

Maul cut off abruptly, strangling the traitorous words before they could escape. Kenobi’s eyes were hidden in shadow, but Maul could feel the warmth of his attention in the Force.

“He’s the one who found you then? Brought you back to terrorize us?’

Maul forced himself to nod, not trusting his voice. Kenobi leaned closed, no doubt sensing Maul’s mood as memories of Savage threatened to drown him.

“Your brother loved you.”

“He-I couldn’t-” Maul choked.

“Save him?” Kenobi’s voice was a sudden harsh whisper in the darkness. Emotions roiled in the Force and memories rose with them like images suspended on waves of heat. Kenobi's pain and loss battered at Maul’s mental barriers and dimly he heard screams reverberating from the past. The emotions were so unexpected from the usually placid Jedi they took Maul completely by surprise. 

_“You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!”_

_White hot pain searing his mind as his brother burned before his eyes. Their bond beginning to splinter as an ocean of rage crashed against it._

_“I hate you!” _

Fighting the migraine beginning to pulse behind his eyes, Maul snarled.

“I couldn’t_ love_ him. He wanted a brother. I wanted an apprentice. By the time I understood what I'd had, I had already lost everything.” He forced the words out, one after another until the final one died in the dry desert air. Maul was grateful when Kenobi didn’t speak. Perhaps he was too lost in his own tormented memory to continue harassing Maul’s. The candle burned until only a small nub remained, the small flame barely able to keep the darkness at bay.

“We share many things, you and me. Did you know you have been involved in nearly every significant turning point in my life, either directly or from the shadows?” Kenobi finally asked. His voice was emotionless as his presence in the Force. The emotions faded from Maul’s mind, but the memories they’d engraved there refused to budge.

“When I was young, I half assumed you had been sent to torment me. A punishment for my hubris whenever I grew too strong or brash. Foolish of course. You were as blind as I was. As we all were.” Maul glanced up as something scraped only to find he could no longer see Kenobi. The man had withdrawn from the light of the candle leaving Maul feeling more alone than during the sandstorm.

“After all these years, that day on Naboo still haunts me.”

“Because you were not skilled enough to save your master?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“Because if I had been more skilled, I could have stopped you and all of this, from happening.”

Maul snorted in derision. His master would not have been stopped by a small failure on Naboo. No, all they had done was play their roles perfectly and kept Lord Sidious on schedule.

“And I, in none of these dreams of yours, survive I assume.”

Kenobi’s voice drifted from the dark, barely audible in the silent cave.

“Would you have stopped? If I had thrown myself at your feet and pleaded for you to spare us? Would you really have stopped?”

Maul’s jaw tightened and his fists clenched hard enough to for his ragged nails to break the skin of his palms. The memory of his victory over Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, one of the sweetest he had, washed over him like a wave. Domination. Power. Vengeance. All birth rights of the Sith, his in that perfect crystalline moment as his saber speared the Master. Then there was the apprentice, wielding his master’s blade with a passion that had been absent before. Pain and hatred and years spent in agony, forgotten on a planet of filth. Maul forced himself to relax, breathing slowly in and out. He realized he was following Master Yoda’s meditation instructions and his rage evaporated in a flood of embarrassment.

“I thought not.” Kenobi whispered.

Maul squeezed his eyes shut and tried to ignore the sound of his own slow breathing. _Damn you Kenobi, you and your little green Kowakian monkey-lizard won’t break me so easily. _He searched for a different topic, surprised to find he didn’t want the blasted man to leave. Talking to anyone, even if it was just Kenobi, was better than listening to the shadows whisper vile truths.

“You’ve been here since the end of the Clone War? To think I wasted so much time searching the corners of the galaxy when you were right here hiding in plain sight.”

Kenobi's voice was quiet in the dark of the cave. 

“A shack in the middle of nowhere on Tatooine is hiding in plain sight?”

Maul shot a glare in the dramatic human's general direction.

“Do you know where Jabba the Hutt lives? In Jabba’s Palace. A bare _light-skip_ away from your shack in the middle of nowhere. I had to visit that abysmal cesspit half a dozen times to do business with that Vile Slug! All that work, that entire time, and you were just sitting here getting old!”

That finally drew Kenobi from the shadows. His face was still grim, but there were no signs of other distress. His Force Signature having gone completely silent, some of that legendary control finally asserting itself.

“I’ll be sure to announce my presence to the galaxy the next time you come calling.”

“Does that mean you plan on releasing me from this squalid cave?” Maul tried not to sound eager, but it had been decades since he’d been outside. It may have been cleaner than his old warren on Lotho Minor, but a cage was a cage, and he refused to be trapped for long.

“No, but your chest is healed, and your homicidal intent does seem to have settled somewhat. I believe you are trustworthy enough to repair your legs so you can toddle around the squalid cave.”

“What’s to stop me from escaping?” Maul asked. He refused to believe Kenobi would leave an enemy an opportunity to get the better of him, no matter how old they’d both gotten.

“The Wastes. You said it yourself, we’re in the middle of nowhere and you are in no state for a second trek across the sands.”

Maul tried to find a hole in that logic but found none. No Mandalorian force restraints or high-tech security, just a hole in some rock and the most inhospitable planet in the galaxy and Kenobi had him contained more thoroughly than anyone else had managed.

“Very well. If I am to repair my legs after your imbecile fumbling, I’m going to need tools, parts, and a place to work. Are you capable of obtaining these things or should I resign myself now to Jawa leavings?”

Kenobi stood with a groan, his knees and back creaking, taking the comment as the dismissal it was. He dusted the sand from his robes but left the small candle to burn out on its own.

“I’ll retrieve what you need. I’m not so decrepit as to be unable to fight off Jawas for the best parts.”

Maul scowled.

“You’re going to bring me scrap.”

“I’ll do my best. Now rest, you look tired.”

“I hate you.”

“I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.  
I was going to add onto this chapter, but it turned into chapter 6.


	6. Ascent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have tweaked some things from a mention in a previous chapter. Setting stuff, not plot or character stuff. I may go back and fix it. Only time and my ADHD will tell.

The first haul of what Kenobi called “parts” was mostly garbage.

Old spanners and wrenches that had been sand blasted clean by the Jawas lay amid the scorched scraps of an old podracer engine. Maul saw what he was sure was the skeleton of an old BlasTech RSKF-44, but the thing was so rusted it all but disintegrated when he touched it. He spied broken actuators and corroded batteries. Most of it _looked_ like it did something, and among the junk there were some salvageable parts, but nothing that would repair Kenobi’s amateur fumbling.

The second haul Kenobi brought back was shinier than the first but had even fewer useful parts.

“I underestimated your capacity for idiocy, Kenobi.” Maul snarled. “How did you let them fool you _twice_?”

“I’m sorry.” The sincerity in Kenobi’s voice made Maul want to beat him to death.

“You should be. I’ll barely be able to make tools with this garbage, let alone repair the damage you inflicted! Do you know what you did when you decided that digging around in my abdomen was more efficient than _just taking out the battery ?"_

"No, but I expect to be informed in due time." Kenobi sighed.

"You ripped out three core neural processing relays!”

“I know precisely what that means.”

Kenobi’s sarcasm was the last straw.

“It means-” Maul hissed, “-_that I__ can’t walk_.”

“Hmm.” Said Kenobi, “Surely the problem isn’t too extreme.” His wrinkled brow furrowed, and his hand went mindlessly to his beard. He stroked it as though in deep contemplation. He looked so unconcerned. 

Maul saw red.

On the cave floor, bits of garbage began to tremble, vibrating in time with the growl rising in his chest. He could feel the Dark Side beginning to surge within him, screaming to be unleashed. Of course Kenobi didn’t understand what it felt like to be powerless. For his entire life he’d had the Jedi to support him and tell him how special he was. He’d never been driven mad and forced to live like an animal, forgotten by the galaxy, abandoned by the man who should have been his father.

Maul caught sight of a rusted exhaust pipe amidst the garbage, one end jagged and torn. He pictured himself ramming it through Kenobi’s gut, twisting as he forced the ragged pipe out the other side. In his mind Kenobi’s blood soaked his hands and poured hot down his forearms. He imagined lifting the old Jedi into the air until crimson droplets splattered hot across his face. Maul knew the pain of evisceration all too well and he projected it, along with the images, through the Force to Kenobi.

The Jedi gasped and staggered sideways, taken by surprise by the sudden barrage of brutality. He braced himself on the wall, one hand going to his stomach as though to check that the former Sith hadn’t actually stabbed him.

Maul concentrated, dredging up memories he’d buried but never lost. Parasites chewing at his flesh. Infections that left him too weak to move. Weeks of starvation as any hope of rescue faded and then died. Rage, so hot and animalistic it threatened to rip his mind away forever. Pain and agony like his Master could never have taught him. Years spent in exile on a diet of filth and rot. The Dark Side coursing through his veins, somehow keeping him from death’s grip. All because of one man.

Maul pushed it all at Kenobi.

He poured memory after bloody memory through the Jedi’s weakened shields like a tideway of darkness. Distantly he heard Kenobi cry out, but suddenly it was all Maul could to do keep the deluge of trauma from sweeping them both away. The Darkness tore at him, threatened to drown him in its depths. Maul heard ragged screams, the kind that never made it past the throat. He wasn't sure which of them they came from. 

“_Be careful, brother." _Savage whispered_, "Y__ou still need him.”_

Maul snarled and ground his teeth in frustration, then released the Jedi’s mind. He dropped onto his back, chest spasming with pain, a cold sweat standing out on his skin. His breathing was ragged, so he focused on it, forcing it to slow until he could open his eyes. Though his breath still billowed out in white plumes in the still air, Maul felt confident he wouldn't murder Kenobi on sight once he opened his eyes. He did so, then rolled his head towards where he’d last seen Kenobi.

There was nothing but a pile of robes where the Jedi had been.

Maul blinked, then twin blaster bolts of panic shot him in the hearts. He tried to call out for the Jedi, but his chest was suddenly too tight to get any air.

_Kenobi was dead?_

Maul stared at the pile of robes, too numb to feel anything other than a slowly dawning sense of horror.

_Kenobi was dead._

Maul had the urge to call for help then instantly felt ridiculous. Who would he call? There was no one to hear for miles. No doctor who could come resuscitate the old man. The Force was of no help to him either, his side of things was better at the taking than the giving. Savage had tried to teach him basic first aid once, but he’d waved his brother off at the idea of wanting to save a life. He cursed his youthful self. Even after all those years spent in torment and he still hadn’t learned.

Kenobi sat up with a wheeze. He felt around at his chest briefly, as though searching for something he’d forgotten. Finally he shook his head and looked at Maul.

“I see. Very well then.”

Maul blinked again..

Of course Kenobi was alive_. _

Maul glared at the Jedi, feeling the comforting edges of anger begin to creep back into his stunned mind. 

“You see_ what_?” He snapped.

“Your legs, I understand now.” Kenobi stood, using the irregularly curved wall of the cave to support himself. He groaned softly enough Maul almost didn’t hear it then stood upright. Kenobi rolled his arms and shoulders and stretched out his decrepit back. Then he fixed Maul with scrutinizing eyes. 

“I may not have the expertise to know what you need to repair them, but you do.”

Maul felt like his brain skipped a few seconds as Kenobi’s words began to register. Hope bloomed in his chest and he instantly smothered it. Hope wasn’t meant for him. He ignored the way his hearts seemed to be beating faster despite his attempts at control. 

“I don’t believe you’ll ever stop trying to kill me-" Kenobi was saying, "-It’s just who you are. But I also know you. I can trust you to act in your own self-interest, yes?”

Maul nodded numbly, trying to forget the horror he’d felt when he’d seen the Jedi’s “body”. This attempt hadn’t been in earnest of course. Tainting Kenobi’s death with memories of Lotho Minor would spoil his decades long hunt. He ignored the low rumble of Savage’s disappointed growl and shoved the voice to the back of his mind. Now was not the time to allow the voices in his head to begin dictating his emotions.

“Very well." Kenobi said with a decisive nod.

"I need to go into Anchorhead for provisions soon and the Jawas should still be camped near there. Would you like to come with me? Maybe do some shopping?”

Kenobi sounded honestly enthusiastic, like he was asking a dear old friend to afternoon tea.

Maul eye twitched. 

“You’re going to let me out.”

Kenobi gave a small shrug and nodded at the statement.

“I see now what this means to you, and I won’t force you to continue on this way when it causes you such pain.”

“Don’t pity me Kenobi.” Maul snapped reflexively.

“I don’t. But there is also no harm in a little kindness. You’re not an animal Maul and I won't continue treating you like one.”

Maul’s lip curled but he forced down his angry retort. Now wasn’t the time to start a fight, not when Kenobi was feeling so benevolent. Maul couldn’t make sense of the man. No rational person would so happily release such a dangerous prisoner, especially not immediately after an attack like that. His instincts screamed trap and Maul narrowed his eyes.

“What’s your game Kenobi?”

Kenobi huffed and dropped his hands to his hips in controlled frustration. The movement was so inherently _Kenobi _that it stunned Maul for a moment. All these years and somethings never changed.

“I don’t need to have an ulterior motive to be a decent human.”

Maul snorted but decided not to push the argument. Instead, he focused on what this meant. Outside. Finally getting out of this hole, which for all its curving sandstone beauty, was still a cage beneath the ground. He tried not to let his excitement show as he pushed himself into a full sitting position. It would make his arms ache after a time, but the pain was minimal.

“Fine.” Maul snapped. “I believe you. There’s no point in arguing about your senile plans. Now, might we be away from this cave, I’m quite tired of looking at it.”

Kenobi looked at Maul, then down at his droid lower body, his lips drawing to a thin line. Maul looked down at his legs, then back to the Jedi. He didn’t trust the look on the old man’s face.

“I won’t be able to carry you out, not with those. Your legs likely weight half again what you do. You may have noticed, but I’m not as young as I once was.”

“I’m can’t take them off.” Maul said flatly. Kenobi nodded.

“Could you remove the limbs though, leaving the only the body? I may be able to haul you out in a basket that way.”

“No.”

“Are you sure? It would be much easier – “

“No!” Maul snapped. The work cracked like a whip in the air shutting the old Jedi up.

“No." He growled. Then he threw himself onto his back and rolled. His earlier exhaustion seemed to evaporate as he spun off the mattress, landing on his side on the stone floor. His legs twisted and dragged, joints stiff with sand and dry grease. Ignoring Kenobi, Maul began to drag himself around in a circle until his head was pointed towards the exit. He glanced at Kenobi, took a deep breath, and began to crawl.

Arm over arm, legs scrapping uselessly across the orange stone, he made his way forward.

Kenobi had enough tact to offer no further help or comment. Maul could hear the scrape of the Jedi’s boots in the sand, but he ignored the man. His shoulders and back began to burn before he was even half way across the cave and sand rubbed the skin of his forearms raw. He focused on his breathing, controlling his body, forcing it onward. The pain became a dull buzz in the back of his mind and he was able ignore it. His legs proved to be more of a problem than he'd expected. With every shift of his arms his body rocked side to side. He felt the muscles in his abdomen, flesh and synthetic, pull and tear from the torsion. Weeks of inactivity and a diet of nutrition cubes had cost him more bulk than he’d realized, but he refused to stop now that he was moving.

The pain began to rise from a buzz to a drone, but before long Maul saw a scar of light on the ground, shining down from an opening in the stone above. His vision had tunneled until he'd been too focused to notice the growing height of the ceiling or the way the wall around his narrowed. Sweat dripped from his forehead leaving dark dollops in the sand.

Overhead, a rope dangled, one end tied into a large loop. The other end was threaded through the oldest pulley block Maul had ever seen. He rolled his eyes at Kenobi’s technical incompetence, then crawled a short way forward. When his hips were even with the rope, he snatched it and began to tug sharply

“Insufferable Jedi.” Maul snarled loud enough for Kenobi to hear him. He ignored the ripple of amusement that brushed past him in the Force. Maul pulled on the rope until the looped section caught in the pulley and the side in Maul’s hands pulled taught. With a grunt he pulled himself into a sitting position, then laboriously to his feet.

His legs couldn’t support him, and he was forced to rely on his weak upper body for the heavy lifting. He strained, hand over hand, until his legs were mostly beneath him. Maul swayed from a brief moment of vertigo. He clung to the rope for balance and took a moment to simply enjoy being upright for the first time in a century. Kenobi appeared in the mouth of the small tunnel leading to his former cell. The old man's smile was nothing but encouraging. Maul scowled at him, then turned his face towards the beam of sunlight streaming down. So far below ground, the gentle warmth on his cheeks only hinted at the scorching heat of Tatooine’s twin suns.

Acting before he had time to think, Maul began to climb. 

It was agonizing. His legs dangled beneath him and for a moment, he worried he wouldn’t be able to do it. His legs were nothing but dead weight and after already dragging them so far, he was exhausted.Maul could feel Kenobi’s eyes on his back. Concerned eyes. Maul growled and let the rage drive him onward.

Maul climbed, legs swaying beneath him. The limbs were too stiff to swing wildly, and their lack of movement was almost worse. With every shift he could feel the prosthesis twisting and tearing as gravity sought to separate it from him. This time, Maul focused on the pain, seeking out every bit of torn flesh and stretched sinew. He would need its power before he was through. His spine and guts burned where implanted cybernetics connected with flesh and threatened to rip free. As the durasteel dragged at his innards, Maul let the agony of the climb consume him. Pain flowed freely until he couldn’t recognize the beginning or end of it. Every part of him felt like it was being torn apart. Maul’s entire body blazed with pain and exertion down to his waist, beneath which he couldn’t feel anything.

Sooner than he expected, Maul began to feel searing heat beating down on his scalp and shoulders. He finally allowed himself to look up toward his goal and found himself hanging above a scar in the rocky floor of a wide sandstone canyon. The crack was nestled among several others of its kind that ran the length of the canyon floor. The tripod and simple pulley system Kenobi had cobbled together was positioned near a shelf of rock, which Maul assumed, the Jedi would swing himself over to whenever he left. 

Maul’s snarl turned into an annoyed sigh as he hung stationary over the cave entrance. A simple nudge with the Force was all he needed to swing himself to the shelf. Maul's arms shook as he reached for the rage that would allow him to make the jump. He found nothing but bone deep exhaustion. The pain that had driven him out of his prison had faded to the aches of an old body pushed too hard for too long. The scar between his hearts throbbed in time with their beats. Not an hour before. Maul had summoned a psychic assault that would have done his old master proud. Now, even when he could see victory before him, he simply couldn’t bring himself to reach it.

Maul wanted to be angry, but all he felt was old.

“Hello up there!” called Kenobi’s sudden voice. The Jedi’s words echoed up the vertical shaft until it sounded like an entire gaggle of Kenobis were shouting at him.

“Do you need any help? If you are stuck, I can swing the rope to get you across!”

_Help? From Kenobi? _The very idea was repellent.

“It’s no trouble!” the horde of Kenobis called. “I’ll have to get a running start first! Hang in there a moment longer!”

Maul felt magma pour into his veins and his chest flared with sudden vengeful fire.

“Swing all you like Kenobi!” He shouted down, “I shall savor your humiliation once I have cut this robe and left you to die down there!”

Then he twisted the Force into a javelin of spite and used it to throw himself away from the cave entrance. The rope ripped from Maul’s fingers and he flew towards the canyon floor like he’d been flung by a Wookie. He was so surprised at the force of his push that he didn’t think to cover his head until he was already skidding across the rocky ground. Only after he'd smacked his head against several storm blown rocks, was his momentum was arrested by a nearby dune of wind blown of sand.

After his instinctive injury sweep turned up nothing more than some torn muscles and stressed organs, Maul allowed himself to grin.

He was out.

Tatooine’s suns baked his skin and hot sand trickled down the back of his shirt and he was _out. _Maul inhaled deeply, relishing the heat as it cauterized his sinuses. For a time he simply lay where he’d landed, the sand dune more comfortable than any bed. He listened to the wind sigh through the canyon as it slowly shifted the tiny sea of dunes that had accreted between the wide sandstone walls. In the numb wake of his rage and pain, Maul focused on his breathing and allowed himself a brief moment of peace.

It was ruined when Kenobi’s balding head popped up above the canyon floor. He looked hideously jovial.

Maul forced a glare over the traitorous smile that threatened to take over his face. The day he _smiled_ at Kenobi was the day one of them died. Permanently. 


	7. Fate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long wait for a short chapter. Writers block has had me in its clutches. This chapter also isn't as well edited as I'd like. Slight spelling and phrasing revisions will likely be forthcoming. 
> 
> Something fun: [ Die by the Blade](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhgeSNRLaoE&ab_channel=BeastinBlack-Topic). This is a song by the Finnish metal band Beast in Black. I have never heard another song that screamed _Maul_ to me as hard as this one does.

Maul tugged at his hood and frowned. Though the street mostly empty, it was busier than he would have liked. Even by Tatooine standards, Anchorhead was something of a dive; but one didn’t survive half a century with the enemies Maul had without developing a healthy sense of paranoia. 

Behind him, Kenobi’s dew back grunted. Maul glared over his shoulder at the creature’s pebbled back. When he was certain it wasn’t going to defecate again, he turned back to observing the street. It would be humiliating to have come this far only to be shot in the back by an opportunistic bounty hunter.

Few residents wandered the streets. A Rodian passed, eyes down turned as she carried a sack of foodstuffs from the local cantina. Down the street a trio of Jawa’s haggled with two Tusken Raiders over a Clone War era speeder bike. Maul could guess who was getting the better end of that deal. One of the Raider’s seemed to sense Maul’s attention and they looked up. Though he couldn’t see the Raider’s eyes, Maul felt their gazes lock. The cloth wrapped figure took a step towards Maul, head tilting in obvious curiosity. Their companion barked something guttural and the Tusken hesitated, then turned back to haggling.

Maul gave a quiet sigh of relief; then forced his hand to relax from around the improvised shiv clutched in his palm. He constructed it from a twisted piece of metal from the first garbage dump of “parts” Kenobi had supplied.

“I haven't seen you around here before, are you new in town?”

A boy stood at the foot of the wagon. 

Maul flinched and instinctively reached for the Force at the same time as he tightened his grip on the shiv again. A beacon of power suddenly flared in his mind and he hissed, feeling like he’s bitten down on a live wire. The boy stumbled back, alarmed by Maul’s reaction. Maul forced calm over his mind and tentatively reached back out. That same blazing power waited, raw and untamed. For a moment Maul marveled that his old Master hadn’t sensed the boy, then he understood.

Maul felt what was left of his stomach clench and he suppressed a shiver in the desert heat.

“You startled me.” Maul said carefully. He emphasized the rasp in his voice, making himself sound older, less threatening. He gave a small smile and straightened his back. A blanket covered his defunct legs, a product of the Jedi’s foresight. Maul adjusted it idly, thinking about Kenobi. The boy rubbed the back of his head and gave an embarrassed shrug.

“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to. I just know everyone around here, and I hadn’t seen you before. We don’t get a lot of visitor through Anchorhead.”

“You have keen eyes my young friend. I am new to the area.” Maul paused, then leaned slightly forward. “I’m staying with a friend in the wastes.”

“A friend?” The boy asked, obviously curious. Maul felt like he should have been knocked flat by the boy’s emotions in the Force, but oddly found that he wasn’t. Curious, Maul focused his mind on the chatty blonde and reached for the Force again. _Power_ like Maul had felt at only the most desperate times in his life surrounded the teenager in a steady aura. It was neither Dark, nor Light.

It was simply The Force.

Maul suppressed a gasp and he felt sweat roll down his temple. What a tool this Skywalker would be. Maul released his grip on the Force and the sense of that power vanished again.

_Kenobi. _Maul realized. _This is his doing. _

Then the greater realization struck. _It’s him. He’s the Chosen One._

“-must have traveled for hours if your friend is all the way- “The Skywalker was saying.

“Yes, yes, a terrible distance.” Maul cut in. “I do wish Kenobi lived closer, but he insists on that hermitage in the middle of nowhere.” Maul sighed and idly tugged at the blanket covering his legs.

“Kenobi?” The teen asked, his voice peaking with interest. “You’re staying with Old Ben?”

Maul tried to cover his snort of laughter with an abrupt cough and from the boy’s concerned expression the deception seemed to work. He took a centering breath and focused on maintaining his kindly old man demeanor.

“Oh, Kenobi and I have known each other for decades.” He looked into the distance for a moment before returning his attention to the rapt teen.

“We were barely more than children the first time we crossed paths. We’ve met many times across the stars, but each time, only fleetingly. Naboo. Florum. Mandalore. So many missed opportunities.” He sighed, an odd tightness forming in his chest at thoughts of those days. Maul found that he didn’t have to fake the remorse coating his words. He cleared his throat, trying to dispel the emotion and pressed on.

“It’s only been recently that I found myself with so much time to spend with him. I never thought I would have the chance.”

The boy’s attention was entirely focused on Maul, teenage insecurities exposed in his blue eyes. Even without the Force to guide him, Maul could read the boy easily. He was instantly filling in the gaps in Maul’s tale with his own romantic conclusions. Even before his duel with Kenobi, Maul had shown no interest in romantic attachments. No opportunities combined with Sidious’ tutelage had seen to that. But Maul could see the need to connect with someone who could relate to what he felt burning in the boy’s eyes.

That fire was a weakness that would be all too easy to exploit.

_Why?_ Maul suddenly found himself wondering. _What is the point?_ Corrupt the Chosen One so he fell to darkness and Sidious would continue to rule the Galaxy? It was a game Maul had spent his entire life losing.

“As soon as my legs are functional,” he found himself saying, “I’ll be moving on of course. I simply hate to stay trapped in one place for too long. Then Kenobi can have his hut back to himself.”

Maul watched the Skywalker deflate and sensed the Force breathe a sigh of relief as the possibility of that terrible future died.

“Oh.” The teen said glumly. Then, remarkably, he brightened. “Hey, did you say you’re fixing your legs? I’m a pretty good mechanic! I do most of the droid repairs on my Uncle’s farm. I could help if you need!”

Maul first reaction to blast the boy’s offer down with extreme prejudice, but instincts honed by decades of manipulation stopped him. There was an opportunity here, one he hardly dared squander. Even if corrupting the boy was a foolish pursuit, he had other uses that could be exploited. Maul suppressed his grin and fixed a kindly, if somewhat vapid, expression on his face. He modeled it after the face Kenobi made when he meditated.

“So kind!” Maul crowed. “I certainly wouldn’t mind a second set of hands. Kenobi can’t tell a spanner from a hex wrench! I’m afraid if he has another go at “fixing” my legs, he’ll destabilize the power core and kill himself.” He chuckled at his own joke and the teen laughed with him.

“He sounds like a real hazard!”

“My friend, you don’t know the half of it.”

“Luke!” A man’s voice called from a nearby doorway. The teen sighed in annoyance and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“I have to go, but I’ll try to come out soon. My Aunt sometimes sends me to deliver groceries to Old Ben, so I know how to find his house.”

“Luke! Let’s go!” A woman this time, but no less demanding.

“Perfect.” Maul said, some of his grin leaking out in his voice. “One last thing my friend, should Kenobi turn you away, do try again. He doesn’t like to share his companions.”

Luke gave Maul a parting smile and wave, then dashed towards a dusty orange landspeeder.

“Farewell, young Skywalker!” Maul called after the departing teen. He watched until the old X-34 vanished from sight and felt the kindly old man visage slide away. Maul clenched his jaw, hearts pumping like he’d just fought a Rathtar, and refocused his attention on the street. It would be humiliating to let himself get distracted by cosmic machinations only to be killed by an enterprising bounty hunter.

Maul’s eyes flicked back towards the few Tuskens he’d seen earlier, but they had apparently departed during his conversation with Luke Skywalker. The street was empty save for the sound of watery cantina music and the stench of Kenobi’s dewback. Kenobi wandered out of the parts shop before Maul could finish braiding the strips torn blanket into a rope with which to strangle the Jedi. Kenobi eyed his former enemy with suspicion but said nothing as he placed several cloth-wrapped bundles in the cart beside Maul.

Maul met his gaze and sneered.

“Find any good junk?” He asked.

“Only the best for you.”

“I’m giddy with anticipation.”

That actually made Kenobi smile. It was like the man didn’t understand sarcasm. Maul rolled his eyes as the human groaned at the strain of mounting his dewback.

“If you die of a heart attack up there, I will hate you until the day I die.” Maul groused under his breath. The Jedi chuckled and clicked his tongue to get Asajj moving. Maul was forced to grab at the packages to prevent them from rattling out of the open end of the cart as they began the slow trek back towards the Wastes.

\---

Kenobi didn’t immediately force Maul to return to the caves. Upon their arrival at his shack, the old Jedi had made a bed of old robes on the tiny couch and procured a pillow from somewhere. Apparently the blanket Maul had shredded into a noose had been Kenobi’s only spare. It served the Jedi right for not thinking ahead and having a third back up prepared. He’d been horrified at first at the very idea of sleeping under Kenobi’s robes, but exhaustion soon won out over disgust.

The robes had proven to be obscenely comfortable. Kenobi hadn’t requested them returned on the morning after their return from Anchorhead. He failed to do so the following morning either. He also seemed to be ignoring the topic of Maul’s eventual return to his subterranean prison. That made Maul nervous. This was his enemy’s home territory. His seat of power. Whatever Kenobi was plotting, Maul would be completely at his mercy.

_You have never been powerless, brother. _Savage whispered. _Not while you still possess your greatest weapon._

As the days passed and Kenobi still did not force him out, Maul set to work on his legs. Kenobi’s cramped hovel didn’t make it easy, but painful tasks were hardly a novel concept. As Maul worked to undo Kenobi’s damage, he studied the man. This was his first opportunity to observe not just Kenobi, but a Jedi in their day to day life. It was mind-numbingly dull.

Kenobi didn’t _do anything. _He meditated. Then he made tea. Then he meditated some more. He cooked in the mornings and evenings, simple fare that was so packed with protein and nutrients it left no room for flavor. His hovel only had three rooms, the bedroom, living space, and kitchen. Most of the old Jedi’s day seemed to be spent sitting on a mat on the floor, _meditating. _

Maul didn’t try to make extra noise while he worked, but he also couldn’t help it if his aged fingers were clumsy and kept fumbling the spanner. There was only one oddity in Kenobi’s monotonous schedule. After four days with the Jedi, the human left without explanation early in the morning. He vanished before Maul woke, riding off into the Wastes on his dewback. At first Maul had assumed he was off to buy more provisions, but his snooping had revealed full stores and a nearly overflowing water condenser.

“A lover?” He pondered but shook his head, dismissing the idea. Even when Kenobi hadn’t been hideously wrinkled and losing his hair, his romantic pursuits had been few and very far between. His affair with Duchess Kryze had been a welcome and useful surprise. Maul doubted the husk of a Jedi would be tempted towards such a romance again.

“Training?” He mused. “Meeting with allies perhaps? Maybe he has General Grievous stashed in a cave nearby…”

Maul used Kenobi’s absence to entertain himself while he worked, trying to ignore the anxiety creeping at the edge of his mind. Part of him raged that the man had disappeared without even a note, the part of him his Master had trained understood. Secrets were power, and this wasn’t the only one Kenobi kept. That didn’t stop it from irritating him like an itch on a thigh he no longer possessed.

Without Kenobi there to distract him, Maul found himself making progress with his repairs. The parts the old man had purchased weren’t top of the line, but they were functional. Before he could begin replacing parts though, he went to battle against the sand accumulated in his joints. Maul began with his toes and worked up from there, cleaning a Star Destroyer’s weight in sand and gummy grease from the prosthetics. He was somewhat horrified by the state of disrepair his limbs were in but resolved to see order restored. 

Maul let the work consume him until he almost didn’t notice Kenobi watching him from the doorway. The Jedi’s presence in the Force was a gentle brush against Maul’s senses, not the abrasive irritant he usually associated with Kenobi. Maul had slipped into a meditative state while working, his fingers moving on instinct to coax strict order from the mess his legs had become. He pulled his senses back and focused on what he’d wrought. Though they were still mostly nonfunctional, his legs were clean, and the joints moved smoothly.

“You’ve been busy.” Kenobi said with what sounded like real appreciation. He stepped fully into the room, a clay jug in each hand. Maul inhaled as Kenobi walked past him and caught a sweet scent wafting from the containers. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“Bantha milk?” He asked. “That’s where you’ve been all day? I was expecting ‘Rebel Espionage Mission’ or ‘Rescuing Damsel Space Princess’, anything but Bantha milking. You truly have lost your touch Kenobi.”

“My years of espionage and damsel rescuing are far behind me, Maul.” Kenobi said with a chuckle. When he was finished storing the milk in the kitchen, he turned and began making dinner as though the action was completely rote. “Bantha are much easier to work with. Quieter too.”

“No reason to simply disappear without a word.” Maul snarled. For once he was surprised at the strength of his anger. Had Kenobi’s absence really bothered him so much? _Not his absence. _Maul realized. _His lack of explanation. _

Kenobi had the gall to look amused. Maul felt his anger spike but clubbed it into submission with irritation, a powerful, but less deadly emotion.

“My survival is ironically reliant on yours.” Maul growled. “If you vanish and die, I’m dead too. I hope you don’t assume I’ll give you a moment of peace in the afterlife if your carelessness gets us both killed.”

Kenobi paused, then tilted his head, conceding the point. Maul grunted and returned his focus to his legs. He hadn’t expected an apology from the Jedi, but he’d hoped for some kind of argument at least. Anything to shake them from this placidly peaceful mutual existence they’d found themselves in. Maul considered trying to kill the Jedi with a Force thrown spanner but decided it would be a waste of a good tool. Besides, Kenobi was making dinner right now.

There would be plenty of time to kill him later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't meaning to reference Episode 4 (believe it or not) I only realized I had upon the reread. There will be action...Eventually...there will be action.


	8. Nightmare

_Bitter cold, chilling his fingertips, biting through muscle until it sinks into his bones. It seeps from the stone slab beneath him. All around him is a fog of Darkness, pressing at his skin, trying to drift into his mouth, nose, or ears. He hides, but the Dark whispers and it shrieks, denying him peace. _

_Too terrified to breath for fear the Darkness will flood in, he makes a choice. Blood thundering in his ears, lungs screaming, he rolls from the slab. He falls thrashing into an ocean of pitch-black shadows. He opens his mouth, but the scream is strangled as the frigid Dark pours in. _

_Burning overwhelms him. _

_Agony spreads across his body right to the points where he can’t feel anything. He flails maimed limbs and Darkness gushes from the stumps like blood. Each breath is a fresh torment, smoke and poison scarring his lungs. It hardly compares to the pain of betrayal that rests like a frigid spike in his heart. A voice whispers in his ear, but he can’t make out the words. His skin cracks and the fat beneath sizzles. _

_The fire sears his nerves but he can still feel the parasites digging at his guts, eating him alive. He crawls, skin cracked and burned, too many limbs missing. Fire roars above him and rodents writhe beneath his palms. Disgust twists his severed guts, but hunger gnaws at them more fiercely. Hating himself, he rips into the filth with his teeth. _

Obi-Wan flinched awake and instinctively rolled onto his side just in time to avoid retching in his bed. The acrid taste of blood, dirt, and filth provided a delightful accompaniment to the stomach bile. Obi-wan lay still for a moment, trying to organize his thoughts and finding it difficult. That dream had been so vivid. He could still feel his skin burning and liquid pouring into his lungs.

_Maul. _Obi-wan thought. _I couldn’t sense him in the caves, but he’s so close…_

He tried not to think about the implications but couldn’t deny them. Maul had been sharing the hut with Obi-Wan for just over a week, and as yet hadn’t revealed any ill will. Obi-Wan was under no illusions about the former Sith’s feelings towards him, even if they seemed to be a mystery to Maul himself. If he fulfilled his life’s work and actually killed his old enemy, he would have nothing.

_“Maul may not be an immediate problem, but he still poses a danger to your mission.” _

Obi-Wan resisted twitching as Qui-Gon’s soft voice sounded without warning. Though Qui-Gon couldn’t read his mind, the old ghost had a habit for turning up at inopportune moments. He wasn’t omniscient either much to Obi-Wan’s relief and irritation. It would have made watching over both Maul and Luke so much easier.

“Maul is behaving himself.” Obi-Wan said. Though the suns hadn’t yet risen, he was too awake to go back to sleep. Obi-wan adjusted his nightgown as he stood and slipped his feet into a pair of slippers. They felt as worn and old as he did. Qui-Gon respectfully waited to continue speaking until after Obi-Wan had finished relieving himself in the refresher. His voice came again just as Obi-Wan was washing his hands.

_“So you believe. Obi-Wan, I sense…something dark in the Force.”_

“Something dark?” Obi-Wan asked wryly. “You’re getting slow in your old age Master.”

He sensed Qui-Gon’s shrug and a vague feeling of confusion.

“At least it’s some kind of warning.” Obi-wan sighed.

“_You cannot trust Maul.”_ Qui-Gon insisted.

“I am far from the foolish padawan you left behind. I know Maul’s tricks.” Obi-wan said. He tried to contain his annoyance and mostly succeeded. He pulled a thick robe from a nearby hood and, enfolded in the thick brown fabric, shuffled into the tiny living room. Maul slept on the round approximation of a sofa, twitching and mumbling in his sleep. Obi-wan watched him dream until Maul hissed something indecipherable and his breathing calmed. 

“There is little more he can do to me.” Obi-Wan whispered.

_“And Luke?” _Qui-Gon asked. _“You’re risking his safety as well as your own.”_

“Yes.” Obi-Wan said, quiet but defiant. “I am.”

“_Why?”_

“Because I’m tired Qui-Gon, and so is he.” He said with a nod towards Maul’s thin form curled beneath the robes. “I think it’s time we both got some rest.”

_“Obi-Wan, I know your pain. I felt each betrayal and death in the Force like I was the one experiencing it. Your agony was mine when Anakin fell. But you have a mission. Maul’s presence jeopardizes that- “_

_“_I know.” Obi-Wan snapped. In his irritation and exhaustion he wanted to lash out at something. The urge to strike out at Qui-Gon, to condemn him for his constant second guessing and detachment, was so strong it nearly toppled Obi-Wan. Almost by instinct he focused his thoughts and forced calm over his mind. It was more of a fight than he was used to, but after a moment, he had his annoyance firmly under control. With an effort, he turned away from Maul and continued into the tiny kitchen.

“_I’m sorry.” _Qui-Gon said, voice sincere. _“I overstepped. I simply worry about you. So much time has passed since you were my student; yet still I sometimes forget you’re no longer the little boy who forgot his lightsaber on the first day of sparring practice.”_

“Thank you, Master.” Obi-Wan said. After a moment’s hesitation, Qui-Gon’s presence faded from his awareness. He sighed quietly and began the morning ritual of making tea and fried toast.

\---

“You were talking to yourself this morning.” Maul watched Kenobi with keen eyes, reading the surprise in his clenched jaw and suddenly tense shoulders. Maul hadn’t been completely conscious at the time, but his training in the Force had been thorough. A light sleeper woke at the slightest noise or light in the dark and his senses extended far beyond his body. The creepy old Jedi had been watching him while he slept and feeling rather conflicted about it too.

“Nightmares?” Maul asked casually.

“Your doing I assume.” Kenobi sighed. He sounded older than usual, somehow fragile. It turned Maul’s stomach. The Kenobi he’d know had never sounded like that.

“No.” Maul answered honestly. Blue eyes flicked to meet gold and Maul put the truth into them. “At least, not consciously. Many of the nightmares we shared weren’t mine.”

Kenobi stared at him, then solemnly put his teacup down.

“What do you mean, shared?”

Maul sneered and rolled his eyes.

“You had to expect this Kenobi, bringing me here, allowing me so close to you.”

“Surely you don’t mean…”

The dawning horror on Kenobi’s face was absolutely delectable, but also utterly confounding. What was the Jedi so afraid of? Maul met the man’s weary eyes and saw his own exhaustion reflected there.

“No!” Maul snapped in revulsion as he realized what Kenobi was implying. “No, we haven’t forged a bond.” Kenobi look relieved and Maul had to suddenly work to contain the annoyance that flooded him. The old Jedi could only _hope_ to be so lucky as to forge that kind of connection with him. Maul stowed the offense in his mind, one more log on the stack in preparation for the inevitable fire.

“Did your precious Jedi Order teach you nothing of the finer points of mental Force manipulation?” Maul asked.

“The Order was very clear on mental manipulation and the bounds of consent.” Kenobi replied. He reclaimed his tea and took a measured sip.

“Oh really?” Maul sneered. “Is that why they call it called the Sith Mind Trick?”

Kenobi grimaced but didn’t argue. “What do you mean we shared nightmares?” He asked, the change in topic abrupt and inelegant. Maul narrowed his eyes at Kenobi, noting how his shoulders drooped and the deep circles under his already baggy eyes.

“Were you born a mirthless Jedi Master Kenobi?” Maul mocked. “Did you never dream the dreams of the other tiny Jedi? Never shared an intimate moment with those near you in the moments between sleep and awareness?”

“Of course I did.” The Jedi said. “But I learned to control it as I got older. It’s one of the first things a youngling learns when growing up in the crèche. Protecting yourself from the emotions and manipulations of others whether awake or asleep.”

Maul tried to picture Kenobi as a fat little child, rolling around the grand halls of the Jedi Temple. No doubt he’d been happy, growing up with so many other children. It was hard to compare that image with the withered old tauntaun in the brown robe currently carrying two teacups to the tiny table. It was harder still to imagine himself growing up in Kenobi’s place.

“Learning to defend yourself from sleeping children isn’t the same as defending yourself from a Sith Lord.” Maul said flatly. Kenobi placed a steaming clay mug within Maul’s reach, then reseated himself across from the reclining Zabrak. Maul ignored the drink. The glare he fixed on Kenobi had cowed crime lords, but the Jedi seemed unaffected. 

“So far you are failing at a task easily mastered by children, your nightmares are infecting _my _nightmares, and you’re drinking enough tea to drown a Hutt.” Maul listed, adopting a patiently condescending tone. “What conclusions might we draw from this evidence?”

“I’ve been…distracted.” Kenobi grumbled.

“Or you’re incompetent.” Maul offered. “The Jedi Knight I remember didn’t falter due to some bad dreams.”

“I’m not the Jedi you remember.” Kenobi said with a sigh. “I haven’t been for a very long time.”

Maul rolled his eyes. It would be so easy to snatch the teacup from the Jedi’s fingers, smash it into pieces, and ram one of the broken shards in an artery in the time it took for Kenobi to throw his pity party. Maul smiled as phantom blood gushed over his fingers.

“Are you always so remarkably maudlin in the morning?” He asked instead of eviscerating the Jedi like he deserved. “If so, I may have to kill you.”

Kenobi gave an exhausted chuckle.

“No, not usually. Those nightmares didn’t allow me any real rest and I’ve had a migraine since you first opened your mouth.” Though the words were light, there was an unmistakable exhaustion in Kenobi’s tone.

“It’s nothing.” The old man said with a dismissive wave. “A bad day is all.”

Maul squinted at the Jedi and could almost see the lies dripping from his lips. Irrationally annoyed by Kenobi’s attempts to placate him, Maul quested outwards with his mind, seeking the Jedi’s presence in the Force.

Agony and rage radiated from the old Jedi in crimson waves. It spread from him a miasma of smoke and brutality, polluting the Force with its evil. Screams seemed to emanate from his mouth despite its current preoccupation funneling tea down his throat. Each shout was so raw and ragged it could have come from any gender of any species. They communicated nothing but terror and grief.

Distantly Maul thought he heard the humming crash of a lightsaber, but the sound was soon lost again beneath the cacophony of misery. The pain did not wane in its intensity. It beat and pulsed and thrummed, each impact a new spike of torment. It bit like frost and cooked his skin until nothing remained but a twisted black husk. The shock of touching Kenobi’s mind caused Maul’s hearts to stop for an entire beat before they pumped again with a hammerlike impact.

Maul pulled his thoughts from Kenobi with effort and focused on controlling on his breathing and slowing his hearts. After a moment’s focus Maul opened his eyes and stared at the placid human sitting across from him. Kenobi sipped tea wearing his usual vapid expression. Nothing in his posture belied the psychic war being waged in his mind.

“Kenobi!?” Maul demanded, “What was that?”

“As I said, today is a bad day.” Kenobi said, exhaustion dragging at the words. He lifted his teacup again, then frowned, apparently finding it empty. With a grunt, the old man began to heave himself to his feet. Maul hissed out an annoyed breath and shoved his cup across the table. He could feel anger rising somewhere in his chest, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint the source. 

“I don’t think so, Kenobi.” Maul said. “You’re not escaping that easily. If you are in the process of dying or becoming a Sith Lord, I feel it is important, for my own survival if nothing else, that you inform me now.”

Kenobi hesitated, then sat back down with a begrudging sigh. He stared at Maul for a moment, then picked up the teacup. Maul crossed his arms and glared holes in the old fool’s forehead.

“Vader is close.” Kenobi said. He took a casual sip of his tea like his words hadn’t just sent what was left of Maul’s stomach plummeting back down the reactor shaft in Theed.

“How close?” Maul asked with brittle patience. “Would you say, is close?”

“Somewhere inside the planetary system, possibly in orbit, but I doubt it.” Kenobi explained. “He always hated this planet.”

Maul made a rolling _do explain _gesture with his hand. The old man was taking his own sweet time, weighing each word as though the next one might be too heavy to bear. It was plainly obvious the Jedi was stalling, forcing Maul to wait on each word. Maul loathed waiting.

“And you just know this.” He snapped, some of the anger seeping into his voice. Something about that anger bothered him, but he still couldn’t quite determine what. He had no reason to be angry, rather the opposite knowing that Kenobi was currently enduring. No joy came. Instead he saw Kenobi’s shallow pained breathing, the sweat beading on the human’s balding scalp, and Maul’s rage only built.

Kenobi regarded Maul with keen eyes, then seemed to come to some kind of a decision. He set the teacup down and straightened his posture. Maul waited, curiosity tangling with the urge to wrap a robe around Kenobi’s head and pour the contents of the tea pot over his face. He wondered what sounds the Jedi would make as he drowned.

“I can still feel Anakin.” Kenobi said simply. “The last time we fought, when I- “he started, then broke off abruptly to take another sip of water. He cleared his throat, then continued. “Our bond was nearly shattered, but I clung to what I could.”

Kenobi hesitated again and the pause was long enough this time that Maul wondered if the old Jedi didn’t have the strength to go on. He found he wasn’t terribly surprised by the old man’s words. Though Maul had never met Kenobi’s protégé, he’d heard enough stories during the Clone War. Skywalker and Kenobi, the Republic’s finest. Never separate and always victorious. Maul could see their relationship and how it had been cultivated through the years by his Master. He considered trying to explain the lie to Kenobi, but the pain in the Jedi’s eyes stayed his tongue. Kenobi knew. Still he grieved.

Eventually Kenobi spoke again, and Maul listened with keen interest.

“When Vader is physically closer, it’s worse. This is perhaps only the third or fourth time in nearly two decades he’s ever come this close to Tatooine.” Kenobi grimaced. “He avoids coming here when he can. Too many painful memories.” He shot Maul a disgustingly comforting smile. “It’s nothing to frown about. Simply a bad day, as I said. As soon as he’s gone this will be over and you can stop worrying.”

Maul felt himself recoil instinctively but refused to be distracted by Kenobi’s obvious senility.

“You’re lying about something.” Maul insisted. “A master Jedi knows how to shield himself from his own padawan, even with an established bond.” He jabbed a finger towards Kenobi. “Why aren’t you protecting yourself?”

Kenobi’s gentle smile remained as cryptic as a Hapan puzzle box.

“You’re either practicing some bizarre form of self-flagellation, unless…” Maul paused. The piece clicked. “You _can’t_ protect yourself from him, can you?”

Kenobi’s silence was all the affirmation he needed.

“You’re shielding that boy’s presence from Vader but hiding him is taking all of your focus, leaving you vulnerable.” Maul’s brow lifted towards his horns as he understood. Then he laughed in disbelief. “Kenobi, did your precious Jedi masters forget to teach you basic mental shields?”

“No.”

“The Sith thrive on secrecy.” Maul jeered. “My master and I lived on Coruscant for years, side by side with the Jedi, and you never knew it. Do you know how we did it?”

“Yes Maul, I do.” Kenobi snapped with sudden virulence. “Your point?” Maul blinked in surprise at the outburst but took a moment to appreciate the irritation in the Jedi’s voice. He was no doubt suffering greatly for his control to slip so blatantly. Maul felt anger twist in his gut again, a confusing tangle of snakes.

“The point is this Kenobi. You’re not so old that you can no longer learn from a master.”

Kenobi froze in the motion of taking another sip of tea. Slowly he lowered the cup and met Maul’s eyes. His gaze was gentle, all traces of irritation gone from his expression, but deep lines carved by pain still laced the skin around his eyes.

“Are you asking me to become your apprentice?” He asked, voice full of calculated calm.

Maul laughed once, a sharp exhalation of sound that was more scorn than mirth.

“Don’t be vulgar Kenobi, it’s unbecoming. No, I merely suggest we trade from both our former orders to our mutual benefit.”

“Trade secrets?” Kenobi asked. He lifted the cup again, apparently intent on draining it as quickly as the last.

“What secrets do the Jedi hold that could possibly interest you?”

The seam in Maul’s midriff where metal and flesh bonded flared with phantom agony. He ignored the pain and focused on Kenobi’s wrinkled brow.

“Meditation.”

The human made a harrumphing sound.

“Your secrets of meditation are of great interest to me.” Maul confessed. “Combining your teachings and my masters has had satisfactory results.” He watched a bead of sweat slip down Kenobi’s temple and the anger flared. Kenobi caught his eye and something in his expression seemed to close. Whatever had put him in such a chatty mood before, it had changed, and he’d returned to the Jedi Master.

“No.” Kenobi said tiredly. Maul failed to hide his irritation. He could see the pain and loss in the old Jedi’s eyes. His longing to be free of his burdens was so strong it was nearly a physical presence. The Dark Side would not spare him that pain, but it would allow him to wield it against those who caused it. Maul knew the truth and though he couldn’t understand or condone Kenobi’s decision, he knew the Jedi would never give in. 

“No.” The human said again. “This is a pain I learned to bear long ago. I have all the help I need to carry it.” He had the gall to smile at his old nemesis. 

Maul opened his mouth to dispute the idiotic drivel, but Kenobi’s raised hand forestalled further speech.

“I do, however, accept your request to learn more about the Jedi methods of meditation.”

Maul wanted to argue but sensed that fighting now would not serve him well. Now was the time to lie in the grass and wait for an opportunity to pounce. Kenobi’s resolve would waver, all it would take was time and perhaps a small push.

“Very well.” He snapped. “We’ll begin now, go fetch your little green monster.”

The human eyed Maul but said no more as left the room. Maul picked up the half full cup of tea Kenobi had abandoned and sniffed it. Herbal. He wrinkled his nose and replaced it on the table. He was looking around for some glass he could smash and sprinkle into the drink when Kenobi returned. He eyed Maul refrained from commenting as he bustled over, holocron in hand. The Jedi wheezed as he settled himself into a meditative pose across from Maul.

Kenobi’s breathing wasn’t as even as usual, but he seemed to have no trouble sinking into a meditative state. Maul followed suit, taking deep breaths of the dry desert air and focusing his mind. He felt his mind expand as it always did when he opened himself to the Force. He could feel Kenobi nearby and more importantly, he could feel the waves of pain emanating from the man. A creaky voice began speaking, but Maul barely heard it.

Vader was killing. On a distant world, millions upon millions of miles away Sidious’ dog wrought death upon the innocent. He slaughtered with the brutal efficiency of a machine, merciless and unstoppable. Maul felt the burning pain of the deaths at the same time as he felt Kenobi’s former apprentice’s frozen rage and sadistic joy. It reminded Maul of his first visit to Malichor as a child. Surrounded by death and horror and his master beside him drinking in his pain as he mutilated his soul.

Maul focused on Kenobi, on his pain and fear and loss, and he _used_ it. Unlike Kenobi, Maul didn’t have a connection to Vader, nor was he protecting the Chosen One from the mad Sith. His mind was free, and his rage finally had an avenue. Maul focused his emotions into a single image and fueled it with the pain bleeding through Kenobi’s bond. Maul channeled the tides of the Dark Side away from Kenobi and formed it into a mental wall more solid than durasteel. Distantly Maul heard Kenobi gasp from the sudden disappearance of the horrors Vader wrought.

“Maul?” Kenobi’s voice was small, almost afraid. Maul ignored it as he locked the image of the shield in his mind, placing Kenobi at the center of it. Part of him twisted in revulsion as he protected the man, but a greater part cried out in victory as the strain eased out of Kenobi’s voice.

“Maul, what are you doing?”

“Focus on protecting Luke.” Maul growled. “I’ll keep your apprentice at bay.”

Kenobi didn’t reply, but Maul felt it when his consciousness touched the Force again. The warmth of Kenobi’s focus passed over Maul before the Jedi turned his thoughts away and cast them across the sands to blanket a farm miles away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.


End file.
